Caterers Editing and Proofreading Services

Somebody at table nine has a nut allergy. This was mentioned on a form six weeks ago, relayed to the kitchen verbally, and the person carrying the plates was not on shift when it was discussed. Everything else about the event can go slightly wrong and be forgotten. This cannot, and the whole of the protection is a piece of paper that follows the guest's name from the booking to the plate.

We edit what caterers and small food businesses produce — allergen and dietary requirement documentation, menu descriptions and allergen statements, booking and pre-event information requests, kitchen and service briefing sheets for allergen handling, cross-contamination and preparation procedures, labelling for buffets and pre-packed items, staff instructions for allergen questions, incident procedures and their communication, supplier and ingredient specification documentation, and customer-facing information about what the business can and cannot accommodate. Our editors work on the chain from a booking form to a plate.

The allergen chain is the one piece of catering documentation that cannot be improvised, and its failure is information that stops travelling. A dietary requirement collected at booking and not present at service has protected nobody. We write these so the requirement is recorded against a named guest and a table or seat rather than as a count, since "two vegetarians and one gluten free" is a number and the person carrying the plate needs a location; so the kitchen sheet states the requirement as an instruction with the specific ingredient and the specific dish, and what to substitute rather than what to avoid; so the difference between an allergy, an intolerance and a preference is recorded and treated differently, given that a preference can flex on the night and an allergy cannot, and staff who treat all three identically eventually treat all three casually; so the service briefing names the person who will carry that plate and the phrase they will use at the table; so the "may contain" position is stated honestly, because a business that cannot guarantee an allergen-free environment must say so before the booking rather than at the table; so the buffet and self-service position is addressed separately, as this is where control is weakest; and so the procedure for a question the staff cannot answer names who to fetch and says that guessing is never acceptable. Chains documented this way survive a shift change.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including menus, procedures and client information. We are editors rather than food safety practitioners, and we offer no view on allergen management, labelling requirements or compliance. What we can do is make the requirement survive the journey from the form to the plate.