Food safetyAllergen management
Customer allergen questions: make the handover to the responsible person clear
An enquiry handover should record the question, relevant product or dish, information consulted and the person responsible for answering. It should prevent a request from being lost between front-of-house and kitchen without turning uncertain information into reassurance.
At a glance
An enquiry handover should record the question, relevant product or dish, information consulted and the person responsible for answering. It should prevent a request from being lost between front-of-house and kitchen without turning uncertain information into reassurance.
Define the decision behind the record
Define who may answer and how they access current information. Record only the personal information necessary for the task and manage access appropriately. Staff need a way to flag uncertainty instead of being forced to select a reassuring response.
Transfer the exact question and the unresolved decision
Record the customer’s question accurately and identify the product or menu item concerned. Establish the responsible role and where the current recipe and ingredient evidence can be found. Avoid collecting personal details that are unnecessary for handling the question under the business procedure.
Keep the original wording connected to the information consulted and any uncertainty. When another person takes over, identify what has already been checked and what still needs an answer. A handover should not turn an unconfirmed recollection into a confident response or treat an old recipe as current evidence.
Retain the authorised response and its relevant source context. Test a question involving a substitution or recent recipe change: the receiving person should find the actual current information and recognise whether a decision remains pending. Record the handover acknowledgement separately from completion of the underlying response.
Worked example
A server receives a question about a particular dish. They route it to the designated person with the dish identity and request. That person uses the approved information and process, with any unresolved question escalated instead of guessed.
Build a usable record
Use the fields below to capture the facts needed for this particular decision. Keep the actual observation separate from any later correction or approval.
- Dish or product reference
- Exact question requiring review
- Current information consulted
- Responsible responder
- Handover and response status
Example record and review decision
Fictional record example: QUERY-01: customer’s question and named product; REVIEW-01: current recipe and ingredient evidence; RESPONSE-01: authorised response.
Keep the original question and the information source connected so the next responsible person understands the unresolved issue.
Do not convert uncertainty into a confident answer during handover or treat an unreviewed recollection as current evidence.
Test the review, not just the form
Practice a request during a busy service. Check that responsibility is clear and that a change of shift does not close an unanswered request. Keep the process aligned with staff training and the approved customer-information procedure.
A few useful answers
Should the form promise that a dish is suitable?
No. A handover form routes information; the appropriate responsible person must use the approved process to answer.
Should staff answer from memory to avoid delaying a handover?
Use the business’s authorised information and response procedure. Where a fact is unresolved, preserve that uncertainty and transfer it to the responsible person rather than presenting memory as verified current evidence.
Sources and further reading
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