Food Allergies And Pearl Spray/glitters
Business By Kitagrl Updated 17 Sep 2010 , 7:05pm by jason_kraft
To Momma28: "Our products may contain or come into contact with milk, wheat, nuts, soy, berries, chocolate and other allergens. It is your responsibility to notify your guests of this risk and hold us harmless for allergic reactions.
This statement is directly above the line where I have my customers sign off on their cake delivery. I point it out so they definately read it. Also this statement is on my contracts and invoices.
I simply cant guarantee no allergens because I do not have seperate equipment."
Sounds great to me.[/quote]
On top of this statement being on my invoices, contracts and labels. I provide a label (most times two pages because most of my customer get multiple flavors) listing every ingredient in every element of their cake (cakes themselves, buttercream, fondant, fruit purees, custards, even the simple syrup wash is lited on there). Dept of Ag made me make these labels duriong my initial setup of my business and I have provided them ever since. Even though some say large event cakes are exempt my inspector didnt say that so I provide them. That way no one can say "Hey I didnt know THAT was in there. OH YES YOU DID
Law doesn't require people in my state to provide ingredients unless they are selling retail to a store. With custom orders, we are not.
I've never seen an ingredient list in a wedding cake???
Any time ingredients are not listed, I feel it is the customer's responsibility to notify me. In custom work, the customer tells me everything else...what flavor they want, what color, what design, what filling. I have nothing shelf-ready. They should also tell me what allergies they have.
I know when my son was on a strict diet, I asked about everything and if I didn't know, I didn't let him have it.
Kitagirl, just wanted to point out that in the case of peanut and nut allergies, avoiding nut extracts alone won't do it. I have a friend who is deathly allergic to peanuts. I did make her a cake, but to do so, I had to check every ingredient with her and she called each company to make sure which basic ingredients are not cross contaminated. In our case, the only chocolate readily available that was safe was Guittard, not Ghiradeli or Hersheys or any of the common ones. We called the fondant company (Satin Ice) which was ok, checked the vanilla, etc. I do the rest from scratch, so the butter, eggs, and flour were all ok.
I just wanted to point out that allergens can be in a LOT of the base ingredients we use and you do have to check those if you want to offer an allergen-free cake. In my friend's case, the fact that I don't use peanuts in my kitchen was enough for her to know that my kitchen was safe for her, but that isn't necessarily true of all allergic people.
I have a severe (anaphalatic) allergy to sulphites which is really not a common allergy and is in wine and also most processed foods. I can only eat non processed or USDA certified organic. I would never go to a wedding, party, etc and expect to be able to eat the cake (or much else for that matter lol) - I just don't trust it unless I baked it myself! I feel like it's MY responsibility to control my allergy and I guess when you have a severe one you don't "trust" too much when it comes to food you didn't prepare yourself.
I understand the woman just wanting to know what she had the reaction to but I wouldn't feel too bad if I were you - I think they should have used a specialty allergy free bakery or at the least, she should have told you OR she should have passed on the cake! Not telling you there was an allergy involved and then eating the cake kind of leads me to question some stuff.
Law doesn't require people in my state to provide ingredients unless they are selling retail to a store. With custom orders, we are not.
I've never seen an ingredient list in a wedding cake???
Any time ingredients are not listed, I feel it is the customer's responsibility to notify me. In custom work, the customer tells me everything else...what flavor they want, what color, what design, what filling. I have nothing shelf-ready. They should also tell me what allergies they have.
I know when my son was on a strict diet, I asked about everything and if I didn't know, I didn't let him have it.
Only takes me 5 minutes (since I have all the ingredient profile for each element already done, had to submit them with my original package to the dept of agriculture) and my insurance agent loves it LOL I print two copies and have them sign one that I keep and leave the other for guest reference. Peace of mind in knowing I provided my clients with all the necessary tools to inform their guests is worth the time and two sheets of paper
You are also free to tell the customer with food allergies that you can't fit their order into your schedule because you're too busy, but refusing to serve all food-allergic customers violates the letter of the ADA.
I don't understand how lying to the customer is better than being honest and telling them the truth.
I really hate the "I'm busy" excuse when people just don't want to deal with things out right. It is a common suggestion here and I really feel people should just be straight forward and honest about things.
If you give someone an I'm busy response what happens when they come back to you next time to try to order again? Going to be busy again and again and again?
My personal opinion (and no I don't have a cake business so everyone can take this how they want) is that it is just better to be honest with people. As a customer I would much rather have people be honest with me.
In the case of allergies, I'd tell someone that I am sorry but that I can not do an allergy free cake for them. Just last week I made peanut butter cookies in my mixer. How can I now go and promise someone with a peanut allergy an allergy free cake?
I'd rather turn down a cake order, than have someone get sick off of it.
I do agree, if you tell them you are busy...they might say "Oh okay...but I have a cake I need in three months, can I just book you for that one?" (Happened to me! But I was truly busy and able to take the latter order.)
So it is truly best to be honest....there are times where I"m uncomfortable taking someone's order (as far as the design of the cake, say its erotic or something I personally can't offer) and instead of saying I'm busy, I just say "I'm sorry for the inconvenience but I really cannot offer that design."
I would say the same thing about allergies...I do not have a nut-free kitchen...my kids eat peanut butter sandwiches...I store chocolate with bags of nuts in the same cabinet...so its up to them if they feel that is safe enough to order a cake from me.
I read before that pearl dust and some luster dusts are made with ground fish scales. It was on the What's Cooking America website, but I've never read it anywhere else, I don't think.
You are also free to tell the customer with food allergies that you can't fit their order into your schedule because you're too busy, but refusing to serve all food-allergic customers violates the letter of the ADA.
I don't understand how lying to the customer is better than being honest and telling them the truth.
Who said it was a lie? Baking an allergy-friendly cake requires more time and effort, as you need to make sure you are not working on any other cakes containing the relevant allergen at the time.
In any case, that was just an example of one of the reasons you can use to legally reject an order according to the ADA.
In the case of allergies, I'd tell someone that I am sorry but that I can not do an allergy free cake for them.
That's another example of legally acceptable wording. The issue is when the customer wants to order the non allergy-free cake anyway, it is against the law to refuse to sell them the cake just because they have allergies.
so its up to them if they feel that is safe enough to order a cake from me.
Exactly.
I delivered a cupcake tower this weekend and the customer was very pleased with it. However she wrote to say that she wanted to ask about my ingredients because her sister is highly allergic to peanuts, shellfish, and other ingredients...and had a mild reaction to one of my cupcakes....but since she's never reacted to baked goods before, she wanted to know what I used. (She did NOT tell me beforehand of any allergies.)
I was like CRAP! I gently told her that if there are food allergies involved, she really needs to tell me ahead of time (she wasn't mad at me), because even if the actual cakes don't contain nuts, the chocolate is kept in a cabinet with nuts, and sometimes I put almond extract in my icings.
Then it dawned on me that I did use a light sheen of pearl airbrush spray...also some silver disco dust and some Wilton star shaped glitter over the cupcakes and cake. So I told her if her sister is really highly allergenic she could have reacted to that..so in the future I need to know if I need to omit this on her cakes.
Have any of you ever experienced someone reacting to the pearl sprays and glitters used on cakes? She knows its not my fault...she's ordering another cake from me soon and they loved this one...but she was just surprised that her sister reacted (mildly) to a cupcake....and I was somewhat dismayed that it happened and that she did NOT tell me. It had to either be the chocolate...a trace of possible almond that was in some of the chocolate icing leftover from another cake...or my biggest suspect is the pearl spray/glitters I used.
Which truthfully...if she HAD told me her sister was food allergic...I would not have thought to avoid the sprays/glitters...but maybe I should be more careful in the future IF someone warns me of a food allergy.
I haven't read this whole thread yet, but, I have had an allergic reaction to the glitters while making cupcakes. I had some on my fingers and I touched my mouth when I was done decorating; next thing I know, my top lip was swollen!! Didn't figure out what happened until it happened a second time!!
I haven't read this whole thread yet, but, I have had an allergic reaction to the glitters while making cupcakes. I had some on my fingers and I touched my mouth when I was done decorating; next thing I know, my top lip was swollen!! Didn't figure out what happened until it happened a second time!!
What were the ingredients in the glitter? Do you have any other allergies?
I edited my response. I didn't read the whole thread before I responded and this part has been covered to death.
I haven't read this whole thread yet, but, I have had an allergic reaction to the glitters while making cupcakes. I had some on my fingers and I touched my mouth when I was done decorating; next thing I know, my top lip was swollen!! Didn't figure out what happened until it happened a second time!!
What were the ingredients in the glitter? Do you have any other allergies?
I do have other allergies, shrimp (didn't affect me until I was grown, ate shrimp all the time as a kid) and a lot of outdoor stuff are my issues.
I don't know what the ingredients were in this glitter, guess I need to check it out, because I use glitter for my girl/diva cakes. Since then, I try to keep the glitter use to a minimum; only for decoration (numbers, etc) and the cake board.
Processed fish scales (typically from herring) are often used to add a shimmering silver color to products, including some types of glitter. If you don't have a fish allergy there may have been cross contamination with shrimp somewhere in the supply chain.
More info:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2544/does-lipstick-contain-fish-scales
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