Food Allergy Research Memo

Chelsea Osborn

Mckoy

English 2

February 24 2013

Research Memo: Food Allergies

                Food allergies are becoming more and more common. With the number of people suffering from allergies increasing, the risk of receiving an attack is more likely than ever before. The answers I am hoping to receive from my survey on Food Allergies is that others understand and agree with the dangers we have to face. It is dangerous to go out and eat at a restaurant with any type of food allergy. Anytime that you order a dish, you never know what you are about to encounter. I hope that my topic will raise awareness to many food franchises and also everyday people, that you must inform others of what is in food. It could, in the most serious of cases, mean life or death. One of my research questions, "Do you believe that every restaurant should have allergy information on their menus?", was by far the question with the strongest feedback.  29 out of 30 people surveyed said that restaurants should be required to put this information on their menus for the convenience of their customers that suffer from food allergies.

                My target audience for this project was both people with and without allergies. I was intrigued to find out if even those who do not have food allergies find this a problem too.  With there being so many people suffering from food allergies, even if you do not have one, you know someone that does. From my surveys I was very pleased and taken back with my feedback. I originally thought that people that do not suffer from food allergies would not understand and think this not a big deal, yet that turned out to be quite untrue. From the broad and diverse group of people I surveyed, I am led to believe that my feedback is very valid. Different people means different mindsets. Not any two people think exactly alike, but most of my survey results came back constant.  With that being said, I believe that if many different people answered the same thing, then most anyone would be on the same page.

Demographic (age, race, gender, location)	Trends (What element is in common with this demographic group)	Implications (How does this help or hurt my hypothesis? What does this mean?)
12 out of 30 people surveyed suffer from food allergies	All have experienced multiple allergy attacks in restaurants.	Shows that if you have an allergy, you are prone to having an allergy attack when you go out to eat.
Out of the 30 people surveyed…	Only one person said it doesn’t matter if restaurants inform their guests of what is in their dishes (allergy information)	Shows that even people who do not suffer from allergies understand how dangerous it is to go out and eat with one. You never know what is in your food.
From the 12 people who suffer from food allergies…	They all sum up the reason for allergy attacks as not being informed.	Some feel uncomfortable with asking, others just “guess” if that dish is safe or not, and one even said they find out the hard way if a dish has their allergy in it!
Out of the 30 people surveyed…	29 participants said that they would feel more comfortable eating out at restaurants if they stated the allergy information on the menu.	Regardless of if they suffer from a food allergy, others understand that it is dangerous for those who do suffer to not know what they are eating.
From the 12 suffering from a food allergy…	On a scale of 1-10, they all picked 7 or lower on how comfortable they were on eating out with their food allergy.	Since there is always a risk when eating at a restaurant, most do not feel comfortable eating out.
From the people surveyed, with or without food allergies....	Everyone with food allergies said it was the restaurants fault if they had an allergy attack. Those without food allergies, about half said it was your fault and half said it was the restaurants fault.	This can help me in my research. I believe that if I restated this question I would get more positive feedback.  Even so, majority said it was the restaurants fault.
Out of the 30 people surveyed...	12 suffered from food allergies.	I realize now that I should have surveyed more people that actually understand food allergies.
Out of the 30 people surveyed...	20 said that restaurants should suffer consequences for not having allergy information posted on their menus.	This surprised me. I was expecting others to think a punishment just for not posting allergy information was "too harsh" or "not important". This definitely helps for when I further my research.

                As you can see, from everyone that took my survey, 29 out of 30 agreed  that restaurants should put allergy information on their menus. I was surprised, yet very pleased, that everyone agrees with such a statement. This statement is the core of my entire search; the fact that so many believe in the big picture of what I am doing is extremely positive. This feedback shows that even those who are not suffering from food allergies  recognize the threat it poses also. Another strong point is that the 12 people that took my survey and actually suffer from a food allergy said that the main cause of their allergic reactions in a public scene is from not being informed. This supports my hypothesis extremely and helps me form another question. If there were to be allergy information posted on their menu at the time, could the allergic reaction have been avoided?  Lastly, to help further my research I found this feedback to be helpful. When asked, most of my surveyors said that there should be consequences involved for restaurants that do not post allergy information. This surprised me the most to know that even those that do not suffer from allergies recognize the problem and think of it as important as I do. Along with their agreement, this helps to further my research to start taking action. If most think that there should be consequences, then why not try and enforce this rule upon food franchises next?

                I believe that my hypothesis was correct. One of the few things I was surprised by was that I did not have more people who actually suffered from food allergies take my survey. I feel that my results would have been stronger than they are now if I were to target people that understand. If I had it to do over, I would target a larger audience of those who suffer from food allergies and I would rephrase my questions to make them easier to understand. From this, I conclude that food allergies is a major problem that is overlooked by restaurants.

                To further my research I want to ask people that are involved in the food industry. Do they believe that food allergies are a problem? Should their consumers be informed? Is there a reason we are not being informed already? I would not change my questions too much, because I want to stay with the core of what this is all about, but I would rephrase them for a different audience.