The Phone Order With a Missing Detail
A customer with a diagnosed milk allergy phones a takeaway at 18:15 and orders a 'chicken korma, no dairy.' The staff member taking the order notes 'no dairy' on the ticket but does not flag it as an allergy. The kitchen reads the ticket as a preference and prepares the korma with its standard base, which contains ghee and cream. The customer collects the food, eats half at home, and within 20 minutes develops lip swelling and widespread hives. They have an adrenaline auto-injector, which they use, and call 999. The restaurant learns of this the next morning when the customer's partner calls to complain.
1. Trace where the communication broke down and identify what should have happened at each stage.
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Breakdown points:
- Order capture: 'no dairy' was logged as a preference. The staff member should have asked directly whether this was an allergy, recorded it as an allergen request, and read it back.
- Ticket to kitchen: the ticket did not carry an allergy flag, so the kitchen had no reason to treat it differently. Allergy orders need a distinct, hard-to-miss marker and a verbal confirmation at the pass.
- Kitchen decision: 'no dairy' in a korma is not achievable with the standard base - the correct response is to say so, or to prepare a modified dish only if the recipe can genuinely be made dairy-free with controlled ingredients. Substituting silently is not acceptable.
- No confirmation back to the customer: the customer was never told the dish could not be made dairy-free. That conversation would have prevented the reaction.
Principle: the customer's words must be interpreted for risk, not just transcribed. 'No dairy' from an allergic customer is an allergen instruction.
2. The customer's partner demands to know what the restaurant will do. Outline the incident response, including what must be recorded and what must not be said.
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Immediate response:
- Treat it as a serious incident. Take the call calmly, express concern for the customer, and gather facts: order time, ticket, dish, staff involved, symptoms, treatment.
- Preserve evidence: retain the ticket, the recipe/base used, batch details and any remaining food. Do not discard.
- Notify the person responsible for food safety and, where required by the local authority, report the incident.
- Review the dish and suspend sale until the process is corrected.
Record: date/time, customer details (handled per data protection), the exact order wording, ticket, staff names, what was served, symptom timeline, action taken, corrective actions and verification.
Do not say: do not admit or deny legal liability, do not speculate on the cause before investigation, do not blame the customer, and do not promise outcomes. Provide factual information and a commitment to investigate and respond in writing.
Follow-up: written response, staff retraining on allergy order handling, and a change to the ordering system so allergy requests are flagged and confirmed verbally.