Re: Food Rants

[Anton Ivanov <anton.ivanov@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 05/03/18 21:24, Andrew G. Malis wrote:

Stephanie,

Not to speak for Mary, but I certainly am sympathetic for her needs.

I think one of her main concerns is not only the availability of certain items (such as vegetables during breaks) but also that it’s kept well separated (such as on a different table) when put out for the attendees, so there’s not accidental cross-contamination outside of the kitchen, even if they’re able to avoid it in the kitchen. The hotel staff don’t always get that.

In Europe they are obliged to. Part of the required implementation of the Eu directive is that food allergy training for all catering staff is absolutely mandatory. Failing that is a fat fine and in the worst cases mandatory closing down of the venue until staff is trained. Though most foreign tourists and conference attendees usually do not know the phone/email of the local food safety inspectorate.

I do not recall any food at the recent Prague and Berlin meetings being labeled by the way. While the fruit was separate I washed it just in case anyway :)

Once again - the posher and moldier the venue, the more likely is non-compliance. Clearly the case with both Hilton and Intercontinental.

A.

Thanks,

Andy

On Mon, Mar 5, 2018 at 4:03 PM, Stephanie McCammon <smccammon@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hello Everyone!

The IETF Secretariat takes very seriously and makes every effort to accommodate food allergies for IETF attendees. It is clearly communicated with the hotel management/hotel staff in the contract and at least three additional times prior to the meeting week that foods must be labeled with all ingredients. This is communicated at the pre-meeting site visit, in the food and beverage ordering document, as well as at the pre-conference meeting with the staff. Occasionally we run into venues that do not understand the necessity and we have to reiterate this request onsite until foods are labeled properly. We also order yogurts that are pre-packaged as well as whole fruit to accommodate those who may worry about cross contamination.

Food allergies are also taken into account for the WG chairs lunch, with separate meals labeled for attendees with allergies. Food allergies are documented and sent to the venue for all other catering events organized by the Secretariat staff.

I do think that it would be helpful to provide a venue contact to those who have severe allergies and need assistance and, moving forward, we will speak to the venues about this suggestion, however please keep in mind that the IETF Secretariat is never too busy to aid an attendee who has a question or concern about the food that is served.

Thank you!

Stephanie McCammon
IETF Senior Meeting Planner
5177 Brandin Court
Fremont, CA 94538
T: +1.510.492.4081
F: +1.510.492.4001

Association Management Solutions (AMS)
Forum Management, Meeting, and Event Planning
www.amsl.com

On Mar 5, 2018, at 12:26 , Anton Ivanov <anton.ivanov@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.uk> wrote:

On 05/03/18 20:04, Mary B wrote:
> Did you read my document?  It does exactly what you're suggesting to address your somments at the end of your email and is why it has the format it does rather than the simpler one you should have in your previous email. I wrote it 10 years ago after the Dublin meeting where we were stuck at a country golf resort

How typical. The moldier, posher and more star studded a place is, the worse it is in terms of food safety and regulatory compliance.

> and the only lunch option was a buffer of random food, whereas I had done my homework over the weekend and found that the hotel restaurants could accommodate restrictions only to find that on Monday lunch, you could NOT order from a menu.  I've updated the document a few times. So, yes, I have tried and tried and tried - the fact that I couldn't get staff to arrange food so veggies were covered with cookie crumbs is a fantastic of the level of failure.    You can find these same discussions over and over in the archives.   You are not bringing up any new points.   We have made some progress, but again where this topic ended up in terms of priority in the meeting venue document means that I have failed as considering this issue can be traded against having a place for people to meet socially - i.e., if a venue has a nice, large bar with cheap beer that can easily be traded against whether there is food that can be obtained at the venue, etc.
>
> The fact that we have had successful meetings where the food requirements happened to be met quite well means your point around having to compromise isn't really valid.  We've done it well by chance before, so if we plan we should easily be able to do it properly.

It is nor realistic to expect that you can somehow have safe food in the regions where half of the dishes are cooked with peanuts, the other half with nuts, all of it smothered in a sauce made out of milk and ciapatti flour and seasoned with sesame (each of these can actually kill people who are allergic). The same goes for the regions where everything is boiled in the same pot with the noodles, then fried up in the same pan or deep fryer. With our without batter and nuts in the mix.

I do not think that it is a realistic ask to ban these locations as you are looking at 50%+ of the Earth (by population). So frankly, if the location is such that there is high chance of going home in a casket one has to participate remotely.

A.

>
> Regards,
> Mary.
>
> --
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