In a first for the industry, Lexington Catering has announced a new Allergy Aware menu launching across all their sites, offering more accessible mealtime options. Unveiled at an event held in BNP Paribas this week, the menu has been designed in partnership with the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation (NARF), in response to growing demand from customers for allergen-free choices.
The menu is part of Lexington’s Mindful Kitchen brand, an initiative designed to promote sustainability, health and well-being through its clean and forward-thinking dishes. Food options for clients include plant-based meals, nutritious smoothies, and food derived from sustainable farming practices. Mindful Kitchen also runs seasonal campaigns aimed at alleviating employee concerns, such as vitamin deficiency and sleep quality.
The menu itself has been carefully designed with accessibility in mind, offering healthy, balanced meals while omitting each of the 14 regulated allergens from the food. Despite these omissions, people will be able to choose from a wide variety of dishes, from hearty stews to crowd favourites such as lasagne. A selection of dishes will be available each day on the Mindful Kitchen counter.
Lexington development chef Dang Pham commented: “With our Allergy Aware menu, we’ve been able to make meals more accessible for those with concerns about allergens while still maintaining our high quality and we’re very proud to finally unveil it.”
Matt Wood, managing director of Lexington said: “It is very important to us to offer food that is delicious but also what our customers really want and Mindful Kitchen has enabled us to do this. We are delighted to have developed this new menu which will meet the special dietary requirements of customers with allergies as we know how critical this is for those individuals.”
“The launch event has been a great success,” says Paula Mellows, Head of Business Support Services at BNP Paribas. “The menu was extremely well-received, and it’s great to see so many people engaging with the Mindful Kitchen brand. I’m also very proud that our site could meaningfully contribute to raising awareness of allergies.”
Natasha’s parents Nadim and Tanya Ednan-Laperouse also had this to say: “We are delighted that Lexington is taking another step towards supporting the food-allergic community. Lexington’s new Allergy Aware menu has been created so that the meals contain none of the top 14 allergens. This not only raises awareness of food allergies but also means people with allergies can enjoy meals with greater confidence that they are free from potentially harmful allergens.
“Food allergy is not a choice or a preference, it is a serious and unpredictable disease that can cause a potentially life-threatening allergic reaction called anaphylaxis. 2.4 million adults now have a diagnosed food allergy in the UK and children generally have twice the rate of food allergies. There has never been a more important time to understand what is fuelling the global allergy epidemic and support the food-allergic community. We are so grateful that our partners Elior and Lexington are leading the way in helping people with food allergies.”
