Dining out safely with food allergies: A comparative perspective from restaurant managers and servers in Malaysia

Food can motivate visiting a destination or coming together with family and friends, but food allergy concerns and reactions increasingly spoil the tourism and leisure experience. Incidents of food allergies in restaurants, and questions on how to handle food allergy communication and practices require attention from the hospitality industry. Based on a survey conducted at restaurants, we applied a five-level framework to examine and compare the multifaceted perspectives of restaurant managers and front-line employees regarding their understanding and practices on food allergies. Findings showed that managers' and servers' food allergy knowledge in Malaysia was low when compared with similar studies conducted in a 'Western' context. In addition, the results also indicated significant differences between food allergy practices and perceived training needs between the two tested groups. In general, managers were more aware of the practices and perceived training needs regarding food allergies than servers. Majority of servers did not receive training in food allergies. Accordingly, all relevant stakeholders must cooperate in developing appropriate educational tools to improve food allergy knowledge.