09/27/2026
At first, working with an onion allergy might seem pretty straightforward. We don’t put onions on our charcuterie boards, and a quick check of the ingredients can confirm that nothing lists onion as an ingredient.
But food allergy accommodation is much deeper than that.
For this board, some of the cured meats listed “spices” without specifying exactly what those spices included. Ideally, we would contact the manufacturers to confirm whether onion was included within those spices, but with a tight turnaround, there wasn’t enough time to do so before the board was needed.
Our customer let us know that the allergy was not considered severe and confirmed they were comfortable having those meats on the same board, as the guest with the allergy would not be eating them. We still kept those meats together on one side and used blueberries as a divider for additional separation.
Here’s what else goes on behind the scenes when we accommodate a food allergy:
• Checking every ingredient label, including less obvious sources
• Contacting manufacturers
• Asking our butcher to sanitize the slicer before slicing our meats
• Using separate, clean knives, cutting boards and utensils
• Preparing on a freshly cleaned and sanitized work surface with fresh gloves
• Considering cross-contamination throughout preparation and assembly
• Separating ingredients when needed
• Communicating with the client about their specific allergy and comfort level
An onion allergy might start with making sure there are no onions on the board, but accommodating a food allergy is never just about leaving the allergen off. It’s everything that happens behind the scenes too 🙏