BUSI 644 Week 6 Individual Project: Part 2 Example

Training Food Service Staff to Protect Customers With Food Allergies: A Literature Review

Introduction

For people with food allergies, eating out requires trusting strangers with their safety. They must rely on a server to pass along their allergy, a cook to avoid cross-contact and a manager to know what to do if something goes wrong. This review examines what research shows about preparing food service staff for that responsibility. It supports the Allergen-Safe Service program designed in Part 1 for a small bakery-café, which trains counter staff, bakers and shift leads in four short lessons. Werner and DeSimone (2017) argue that HRD programs should rest on evidence about the need, the learners and what makes training effective; this review gathers that evidence for one specific need.

I searched the Jerry Falwell Library's databases, including Academic Search Complete, PubMed and Business Source Complete, using combinations of "food allergy," "restaurant," "food service," "staff," "knowledge," "training" and "transfer of training." I focused on peer-reviewed studies of restaurant personnel and on well-established reviews of training research. The sources fall into five themes: the risk in food service settings, staff knowledge and attitudes, customer and staff communication, training interventions and training transfer.

The Risk in Food Service Settings

Restaurants are a significant source of serious allergic reactions. A work group of allergy specialists noted that dining out, including restaurant and take-out meals, accounts for a large proportion of severe reactions, often because of gaps in knowledge or miscommunication by either customers or staff (Carter et al., 2020). In a report on restaurant practices, Radke et al. (2017) cited estimates that food allergies affect about 15 million people in the United States and cause around 30,000 emergency department visits and 150 to 200 deaths a year, and that nearly half of fatal food allergy reactions reported over a 13-year period were caused by food from a restaurant or other food service establishment.

Formal training, by contrast, appears uncommon. In interviews at 278 restaurants across six U.S. sites, fewer than half of managers (44.4 percent) and food workers (40.8 percent) and only a third of servers (33.3 percent) reported having received food allergy training (Radke et al., 2017). Most restaurants had ingredient lists for at least some menu items, but dedicated allergen-free equipment or prep space was rare. The authors recommended training for personnel, ingredient lists for all menu items and dedicated equipment and areas. For a small café, those three recommendations map directly onto the Part 1 program's lessons, allergen matrix and color-coded tools.

What Managers and Staff Know and Believe

Studies of staff knowledge reach findings that look inconsistent until their settings and measures are compared. In the same six-site U.S. study, Radke et al. (2016) found that managers, food workers and servers were generally knowledgeable and had positive attitudes about accommodating customers' allergies. Important gaps remained: more than 10 percent of managers and staff believed that a person with a food allergy can safely eat a small amount of the allergen, and staff were less confident in their restaurant's ability to respond to an allergy emergency. Knowledge and attitudes were higher in restaurants that had a specific person to answer allergy questions.

Lee and Xu (2015) surveyed 110 U.S. restaurant managerial staff and found a mean knowledge score of 19.7 out of 28. Most respondents said they would modify recipes for customers with allergies, yet many believed that customers should be responsible for requesting special meals. Most had provided some employee training, and they identified employees' lack of commitment and time constraints as the main barriers to training.

A study in Germany found weaker knowledge. Loerbroks et al. (2019) interviewed 295 restaurant staff in Düsseldorf face to face. Only 30 percent could correctly name three food allergens, and 41 percent answered all five true-false statements correctly. Most expressed positive attitudes toward cooperation and shared responsibility for allergic customers, but their attitudes toward serving such customers and toward the validity of customers' reported allergies were unfavorable. Knowledge and attitudes varied with factors such as restaurant type and professional role.

Read together, these studies suggest that staff often hold general awareness and good intentions alongside specific misconceptions, such as the belief that a small amount is safe, and that attitudes can undercut knowledge when staff doubt customers' reports. A server who suspects an allergy is really a preference has the knowledge to help and a reason not to. The finding that a designated allergy contact improves knowledge and attitudes (Radke et al., 2016) also suggests that structure in the workplace matters, not only individual training.

The Customer's Side of the Conversation

Most of the research examines staff, but the customer's experience explains why communication fails. Barnett et al. (2020) analyzed interviews with 39 consumers with severe food allergies. Customers initiated conversations about risk mainly when they were uncertain, unfamiliar with a venue or lacked information, and they sometimes re-established what the authors called a contract of care even with familiar venues. Two constraints limited these conversations: customers did not want to be seen as fussy or as a nuisance. To avoid seeming fussy, they framed their questions in terms of risk, emphasizing the seriousness of their allergy, which could paradoxically leave them feeling more exposed.

This finding complements the staff studies. If some staff doubt customers' reports (Loerbroks et al., 2019) and customers fear being seen as difficult (Barnett et al., 2020), each side's reluctance reinforces the other's. Training that teaches staff to ask about allergies routinely and respond without judgment, as the Part 1 counter protocol does, addresses both sides of that cycle.

Evidence From Training Interventions

Evaluations of food allergy training for restaurant staff are fewer than surveys of knowledge. Bailey et al. (2014) evaluated a training event designed by a multidisciplinary team, including a clinician, a teacher and a representative of a patient group, for restaurant staff in Brighton, England, where a prior survey had found knowledge gaps. None of the attendees had previously received formal food allergy training. After the event, the share who answered all true-false questions correctly rose from 82 to 91 percent, and the share who could name at least three common allergens rose from 9 to 64 percent. Participants reported satisfaction with the event and changes in practice.

The study has the limits typical of pilot evaluations: a small group, measurement immediately after training and self-reported changes in practice. Still, it shows that a short, well-designed event can close obvious knowledge gaps. The topics that U.S. restaurant staff reported covering in their training, chiefly the major allergens and what to do when a customer reports an allergy (Radke et al., 2017), match the content that Bailey and colleagues found could be learned quickly. Less is known about whether such gains persist or change behavior under the pressure of a busy shift.

Making Training Transfer to the Job

Training research helps fill that gap. Blume et al. (2010) meta-analyzed 89 studies of training transfer and reported that transfer was higher among more able, more conscientious and more motivated trainees and where the work environment supported using what was learned. They also found that most predictors mattered more when training taught open skills, where trainees must judge how to act, as in leadership, than when it taught closed skills with a fixed correct procedure. Allergen procedures are largely closed skills, which suggests that clear steps, practice and job aids can carry them to the job, but that workplace support still matters.

Salas et al. (2012) summarized the conditions that make training effective in practice, including a needs analysis before training, practice and feedback during it and supervisor support and opportunities to use new skills afterward. Werner and DeSimone (2017) likewise emphasize the transfer climate and follow-up. For allergen safety, this research argues for observed practice rather than lecture alone, job aids at the point of use and a manager or shift lead who reinforces the procedures and answers questions, the same structural support Radke et al. (2016) associated with better staff knowledge and attitudes.

Designing for the Learners Food Service Employs

The learners in this setting add a further design consideration. Food service staff, especially at counters and coffee bars, are often young, part-time and short-tenured, and many work second jobs or attend school. Werner and DeSimone (2017) discuss how learner characteristics, including motivation, prior experience and readiness, shape how training should be designed, and they summarize adult learning principles that emphasize relevance to the job and active participation. Those principles fit the evidence above. A part-time barista who works three shifts a week is unlikely to retain a lecture on immunology, but is likely to retain a short role play in which a customer mentions a sesame allergy during a morning rush, because that is the situation the barista will actually face.

Turnover also changes what training must accomplish. A program delivered once to the current staff will reach only part of the workforce a year later. The barriers that managers identified, staff commitment and time (Lee & Xu, 2015), are likely to be sharpest in small businesses with thin staffing, where pulling employees off the floor for training means fewer hands during service. Short lessons delivered before opening, as in the Part 1 design, and a standard onboarding sequence for every new hire respond to both problems. The research reviewed here does not test these specific design choices, but it supplies the reasons for them: knowledge gaps are specific and correctable, attitudes affect whether knowledge is used and transfer depends on what happens after training.

Another consideration is how training handles doubt. Because some staff question whether customers' reported allergies are genuine (Loerbroks et al., 2019), a program that only teaches facts may leave the most important attitude untouched. Discussion of real cases, including the consequences of a reaction for the customer and the business, and a firm rule that every reported allergy is treated as genuine, give staff a way to act correctly regardless of private doubts. The rule also protects employees, who no longer have to judge a customer's honesty during a busy shift, and it gives managers a clear standard to coach against when an order goes wrong.

A Biblical Perspective

Scripture speaks directly to the responsibility of one person's food choices toward another's welfare. Writing to believers divided over which foods were acceptable, Paul urged the strong not to use their freedom in a way that harmed a fellow believer, warning that eating in a way that wounds a brother means no longer walking in love, and that no one should ruin, over a meal, a person for whom Christ died (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016, Romans 14:15). Paul's concern was conscience rather than physical allergy, yet the principle reaches further: love takes seriously what another person needs from the table, even when it is inconvenient. A server who treats an allergy question as a nuisance, or a cook who assumes a trace will not matter, falls short of that standard. Training staff to ask, prepare and respond with care is one way a business can practice love of neighbor in ordinary work.

Gaps in the Research

Three gaps limit what the literature can tell a small business. First, most studies are cross-sectional surveys, which show what staff know at one moment but not how knowledge changes after training. Second, evaluations of training interventions, such as Bailey et al. (2014), measure knowledge immediately after training and rely on self-reported practice, so evidence on long-term behavior and on actual reactions prevented is scarce. Third, little research addresses small independent food businesses specifically, such as bakeries and cafés with a few dozen employees, although they may lack the training resources of chains and may have high turnover among part-time staff.

Implications for the Part 1 Program

The research supports the main design choices of the Allergen-Safe Service program and suggests three refinements. The program's emphasis on the nine major allergens and on correcting the belief that a small amount is safe addresses the most common knowledge gaps (Loerbroks et al., 2019; Radke et al., 2016). Its counter protocol, which asks every customer who mentions an allergy the same questions without judgment, responds to the communication barriers customers describe (Barnett et al., 2020). Its color-coded tools and allergen matrix follow the practical recommendations from the U.S. restaurant study (Radke et al., 2017).

The refinements follow from the transfer research and the gaps. First, the café should name a designated allergy lead on every shift, as the program already proposes, and make that person visible to staff and customers. Second, knowledge checks should be repeated at three and six months, not only after training, to test whether learning persists. Third, the café should record near-misses and customer feedback so that it can contribute the kind of long-term evidence the literature lacks, at least for its own decisions.

Conclusion

The research reviewed here shows that food service settings pose real risks to customers with food allergies, that staff often combine general awareness with specific misconceptions and doubts, that customers hesitate to press their concerns and that short training can close knowledge gaps quickly. Training research adds that lasting change depends on practice, job aids and a supportive workplace. Together, these findings give the Part 1 program a sound foundation and point to the follow-up that will determine whether it protects customers over time.

References

Bailey, S., Billmeier Kindratt, T., Smith, H., & Reading, D. (2014). Food allergy training event for restaurant staff; a pilot evaluation. Clinical and Translational Allergy, 4(1), Article 26. https://doi.org/10.1186/2045-7022-4-26

Barnett, J., Vasileiou, K., & Lucas, J. S. (2020). Conversations about food allergy risk with restaurant staff when eating out: A customer perspective. Food Control, 108, Article 106858. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2019.106858

Blume, B. D., Ford, J. K., Baldwin, T. T., & Huang, J. L. (2010). Transfer of training: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Management, 36(4), 1065-1105. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206309352880

Carter, C. A., Pistiner, M., Wang, J., & Sharma, H. P. (2020). Food allergy in restaurants work group report. The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice, 8(1), 70-74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaip.2019.09.013

English Standard Version Bible. (2016). Crossway. (Original work published 2001)

Lee, Y. M., & Xu, H. (2015). Food allergy knowledge, attitudes, and preparedness among restaurant managerial staff. Journal of Foodservice Business Research, 18(5), 454-469. https://doi.org/10.1080/15378020.2015.1093452

Loerbroks, A., Tolksdorf, S. J., Wagenmann, M., & Smith, H. (2019). Food allergy knowledge, attitudes and their determinants among restaurant staff: A cross-sectional study. PLOS ONE, 14(4), Article e0214625. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0214625

Radke, T. J., Brown, L. G., Faw, B., Hedeen, N., Matis, B., Perez, P., Viveiros, B., & Ripley, D. (2017). Restaurant food allergy practices: Six selected sites, United States, 2014. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 66(15), 404-407. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6615a2

Radke, T. J., Brown, L. G., Hoover, E. R., Faw, B. V., Reimann, D., Wong, M. R., Nicholas, D., Barkley, J., & Ripley, D. (2016). Food allergy knowledge and attitudes of restaurant managers and staff: An EHS-Net study. Journal of Food Protection, 79(9), 1588-1598. https://doi.org/10.4315/0362-028X.JFP-16-085

Salas, E., Tannenbaum, S. I., Kraiger, K., & Smith-Jentsch, K. A. (2012). The science of training and development in organizations: What matters in practice. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 13(2), 74-101. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100612436661

Werner, J. M., & DeSimone, R. L. (2017). Human resource development (7th ed.). Cengage Learning.