Can AI answer your restaurant’s allergen questions safely?
Short answer: it can help, but only by repeating your own written allergen information and handing anything uncertain to a person. The agent repeats what your kitchen’s allergen matrix already says, for example whether a dish contains nuts according to your own record, the same on the phone, on your website, by email and on Instagram, at noon and at midnight. And for anything it should not answer, a severe allergy, a question about cross-contamination, a dish the matrix does not cover, it does not guess. It says so plainly and passes the guest to your team.
Why are allergen questions so hard on a busy service?
Because they arrive at the worst moments and carry the highest stakes of any question a restaurant gets. The phone rings mid-service. The Instagram message lands at eleven at night. The email sits unread until tomorrow. And whoever picks up, on a busy Saturday that might be the newest member of the team, is being asked something where “I think so” is not an acceptable answer.
Guests with allergies know this. Many decide where to book based on how confidently their first question is answered. A clear, specific answer before they book wins the table. A vague one, or a phone that rings out, sends the booking somewhere that felt safer.
What does the law already require?
Every food business must provide accurate allergen information for the 14 regulated allergens, available to the customer before they order. The Food Standards Agency’s guidance covers how that information must be kept and given, in writing, in conversation, or both, and it must be accurate and consistent with your kitchen’s records.
So the information already exists in your restaurant. The gap is not the information, it is getting that exact information to the guest, on whatever channel they ask, at whatever hour they ask, without a game of telephone through a busy service.
How does the agent avoid giving a wrong answer?
- One source. It only repeats the allergen information your kitchen already keeps. It does not make its own judgement, it does not assess risk, and it does not fill gaps.
- It never decides what is safe. It does not tell a guest something is safe for them, and it never says “should be fine”. It passes on your written information, and that is all.
- Every channel, one answer. Phone, website chat, email and Instagram all give the same answer, because they all read from the same record. When the menu changes, you update it once.
- The line it will not cross. For a severe allergy, a cross-contamination question, or a dish the matrix does not cover, it tells the guest a person needs to answer, takes their details, and passes them straight to your team.
- The kitchen stays the authority. The agent delivers your kitchen’s answer. It never creates one.
See how it handles dietary requirements end to end: Dietary & Allergens.
Allergen answers, three ways
| Approach | Same answer every time | Available mid-service and at midnight | Knows when to hand to a person |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whoever answers the phone | Depends who picks up | No | Depends on training |
| A PDF menu on the website | Only if the guest finds it, and it is current | Yes, but it cannot answer a question | No |
| An always-on agent (Sorino) | Yes, from one record | Yes, and it can | Yes, by rule |
Will guests trust it?
A guest with an allergy is not looking for charm, they are looking for a clear answer and evidence the restaurant takes it seriously. Getting the written answer quickly, at any hour, with anything uncertain handed to a person, helps a guest see that the restaurant takes the question seriously. And your team stops fielding the same menu questions mid-service, while keeping every conversation that actually needs them.
How quickly can it go live?
About six weeks. The first couple of weeks load your menus, your allergen matrix and your voice, and set the hard rules for what gets handed to a person. Then voice and website chat go live and get tuned, then email and Instagram messages are added, with reporting turned on so you can see what guests asked and what was passed to the team.
The short version
- Allergen questions arrive at the worst moments and carry the highest stakes; how they are answered decides bookings.
- The law already requires accurate allergen information for the 14 regulated allergens; the agent’s job is delivering it, not creating it.
- One record answers every channel identically, updated once when the menu changes.
- It never guesses, never says “should be fine”, and never tells a guest something is safe: severe allergies, cross-contamination and unlisted dishes go straight to your team.
- Live in about six weeks, alongside your team.
Sources
- Food businesses must provide allergen information for the 14 regulated allergens; the Food Standards Agency’s guidance for food businesses covers what must be provided and how. Food Standards Agency. food.gov.uk
This page is about how allergen questions get answered, and is not food safety advice. Your kitchen’s own allergen information, kept accurate, is always the source.
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Give every allergen question a straight answer.
Build an agent on your own restaurant, see how it handles your written allergen information, and see where it hands to a person, before you commit to anything.