Allergen review workflow

Allergen data goes wrong slowly: a supplier changes, a sauce is thickened differently, a dish is copied and its tags come with it. A short, repeatable review is the only thing that keeps published data true.

Assign ownership

One named person owns allergen data for the site. Not "the kitchen" and not "whoever edits the menu" — one person, who:

• decides the house policy on traces and shared equipment;
• signs off any new dish before it is published;
• runs the review below;
• keeps the record of what changed and when.

The first pass, before launch

Work section by section, with the recipes in front of you.

1. Filter All items by one category.
2. Open each item and tag it from its recipe — base, stock, thickener, frying fat, sauce, garnish, bread, finish.
3. Have a second person verify the whole section.
4. Publish the section.
5. Check the public menu signed out: icons on every dish, and a plausible result when filtering by gluten and by dairy.

Do not tag a whole menu in one sitting. Attention fades and allergen tagging is exactly where it must not.

Triggers that require an immediate review

• A recipe changes.
• A supplier or product changes.
• A dish is duplicated — the copy inherits the original's allergens, which may be wrong for it.
• A dish is imported in bulk — imports carry no allergen data at all, so imported items start untagged.
• The allergen library is renamed, extended or reduced.
• A guest reports an inconsistency.

The duplication case is the most common source of silent error. See Duplicate an item.

The periodic review

Monthly, or whenever the card changes:

• [ ] Every published item has been reviewed at least once since its last recipe change.
• [ ] No item imported in bulk is still untagged.
• [ ] Filtering by gluten returns a plausible menu.
• [ ] Filtering by dairy returns a plausible menu.
• [ ] The library still matches the wording the kitchen uses.
• [ ] The disclaimer wording is present and current.
• [ ] Every circulating PDF has been regenerated since the last change.

An implausible filter result is the fastest indicator: an empty menu means over-tagging, a full menu means under-tagging.

Reviewing a bulk-imported menu

Because imports bring titles and prices only, a freshly imported menu has no allergen data at all. Treat it as a launch:

1. Import the skeleton.
2. Tag section by section.
3. Verify each section.
4. Publish.

Do not publish an imported menu with untagged items and intend to tag them later. A published dish with no allergens declared reads to a guest as a dish with no allergens.

Staff briefing

Whatever is published, the floor must know:

• where the allergen information lives on the guest's screen;
• what the house policy on traces is;
• that they must ask the kitchen when a guest's question goes beyond what is published;
• that a dish they are unsure about is answered by asking, not by reading the menu aloud.

Keeping a record

Fenómenus keeps no allergen change history and menu items have no revisions. Maintain the record outside the product: date, dish, change, reason, who approved it. It costs a line per change and it is what turns a claim of diligence into evidence of it.