Warwick Food and Drink is committed to ensuring the highest standards of food safety are achieved.

Our aims are to:

• Provide safe food
• Manage food safety risks including those presented by allergens
• Ensure that foods are labelled accurately and information on menu ingredients and allergen content is available
• Ensure as far as is reasonably practicable that foods are free from specific allergens wherever requested

The team is available for support and advice during the preparation and on the day of your event, with the aim of supporting attendees with information on menu selection, recipes, allergens and dietary requirements. If you have any questions then please speak to any member of the team who will be more than happy to help.

Information required relating to allergens and dietary requirements

Information required includes the name of the attendee and their dietary requirements (including any additional notes that a delegate may have given to you as the organiser on those requirements).

If an attendee asks for a specific dietary requirement and you are unsure as to how we can manage this – then feel free to ask your sales co-ordinator to contact the attendee directly to discuss the details of their requirements.

Dietary requirements and food allergies

As the organiser of the event, you can choose from our menu for all guests with dietary requirements:

• Refreshments
  Alternative products such as gluten free biscuits, pastries, soya milk, vegan or nut free items are available on request, see our menu for details and relevant prices.
• Finger & fork buffets
  Where you have requests for specific dietary requirements, you can review the suitable options on our menu, which are all priced individually.

Food allergy

A food allergen; is a food or ingredient which can cause an allergic reaction in predisposed persons.

An allergic reaction is a “response within the body, to a substance (in this case a particular type of food), which is not necessarily harmful in itself, but results in an immune response and a reaction that causes symptoms and disease in a predisposed person, which in turn can cause inconvenience, or a great deal of misery”.

Anaphylaxis is a severe allergic reaction, that being the extreme end of the allergic spectrum. The whole body is affected, very often within minutes of exposure to a food allergen but can sometimes take hours.

The following foods and their derivatives have been recognised to commonly produce severe allergic reactions across the EU:

• nuts (tree nuts)
• peanut (legume)
• sesame seeds
• cereal - containing gluten (eg. wheat, barley, rye and oats)
• egg (all varieties)
• fish (all species)
• crustaceans (including crab, lobster and prawn)
• molluscs
• celery and celeriac
• milk
• soya
• mustard
• lupin
• sulphites and sulphur dioxide

Coeliac disease

Coeliac disease is a lifelong autoimmune disease caused by gluten found in wheat, barley and rye. Some predisposed persons may also be sensitive to oats. It is not an allergy or intolerance to gluten; however the immune system mistakes substances found inside gluten as harmful to the body and attacks them.

Food intolerance

Food intolerance does not involve the immune system. Reactions may be triggered by an inability to digest a particular food. Symptoms are not usually immediate, however can be unpleasant and severe in some cases and can affect long-term health, but are not normally life-threatening. There are many foods that people can be intolerant to, but the most common food intolerances are to:

• milk & lactose
• gluten and wheat
• preservatives
• naturally occurring compounds such as caffeine

Life-style / Religion

Through choices of their own or because of a particular denomination people may choose to follow a specific diet for example:

• kosher
• halal
• vegetarian and vegan
• pescatarian

Controlled intake diet

Some people may need to follow a strict diet in order to control a medical condition, such diets may include:

• diabetic
• low fat/cholesterol
• low potassium
• low/high fibre