Serving Those with Food Allergies

CKC Good Food takes very seriously the work of serving people with food allergies. According to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, approximately 8% of children in the United States have food allergies. In addition to offering a special menu that eliminates many of the most common allergens, CKC Good Food has extensive prep procedures to minimize the potential of allergic reactions to our meals.

Allergen-Free, Flavor-Full Menu

CKC Good Food's special menu for consumers with food allergies is called “allergen-free,” however, we're well aware there are so many allergens that no one menu could accommodate every possible allergen. Nevertheless, we call it our allergen-free menu. 

This three-week menu rotation is free of the most-common allergens: dairy, gluten, soy, eggs, fish/shellfish, sesame, sunflower, tree nuts and peanuts. If your site serves someone with another allergy, we'll work with your Food Service Manager to try to provide a suitable meal.

The main entrees include delicious beef & broccoli, chicken fajitas with rice (no flour tortilla), chicken pilaf, chicken sukkha, yummy beef & scallion and more. Each entrée is paired with fresh or steamed vegetables, a grain like steamed brown rice or corn chips, and a milk substitute.  Our allergen-free menu intentionally uses minimally processed foods and relatively few ingredients because manufacturers frequently change the ingredients in products used in our main hot lunch meals. Sauces, in particular, can be culprits of frequent changes and hidden allergens. Neither manufacturers nor the USDA are required to report ingredient/label changes to food distributors, School Food Authorities (SFAs)/schools or food service management companies/caterers. The lack of notification is the single biggest challenge in guaranteeing allergen-free meals do indeed omit risky ingredients.

For sites participating in the National School Lunch Program, MDE/USDA requires students with food allergies to have a Special Dietary Statement signed by their physicians on file for the meals to qualify for reimbursement. Dietary restrictions recommended by specialty doctors or dietitians do not meet the MDE/USDA requirements.

Precautionary Prep Procedures

In addition to a well-planned allergen-free menu, we also follow strict food handling, cleaning and preparation processes to minimize the risk of allergic reactions.

Our procedures start with thorough training of all food service personnel prior to the start of each school year. Certified Food Protection Managers who oversee each of our kitchens are further trained and tested on allergen protections. To simplify daily operations at the offsite kitchens we manage, all the sites we serve receive their allergen-free meals from our central commissary.

Before packaging our allergen-free meals, the production area where they are prepped is cleaned and sanitized. This area is set apart from our hot meal prep and deli prep area to minimize the chances of cross contamination.

Prior to any cooking, our team reads the ingredient labels to confirm no allergens are present or possibly present, as indicated by warning statements, such as “may contain,” “produced on shared equipment,” or “produced in a plant that uses.” Foods with these warnings are not used in our allergen-free menu.

Our cooks prepare the allergen-free meals as listed on the menu, with no substitutions. Then the meals are individually packaged into disposable aluminum containers and covered for delivery to serving sites.

We're proud to say that in our many years of following these procedures, no one has experienced an allergic reaction when eating meals from our allergen-free menu.