A catering dietician is not planning a pretty week. They are planning safety: lactose, gluten, milk protein, nuts — often in combinations per child.

Checking every day by hand works up to a point. Then you are left with stress and hope nobody moved a row in Excel.

Two dictionaries that have to meet

The system needs a dictionary of diets and allergens on children, and allergens on dishes. Only crossing them while planning has value — not a full product-label ingredient database, just what the dietician marked on the meal.

If allergens live “in the dietician's head” and orders in another file, the software is not watching anything — it is just displaying a menu.

A conflict should show on the dish — not only in a complaint

When a child's allergen and a dish allergen overlap, the menu cell shows a warning (in red). The plan can still be saved: the dietician may mark the allergen as ignored, add an exclusion, a substitute or a comment.

That is not a hard save block. It is a signal you cannot miss while planning — and a decision the system does not take for the dietician.

The label is the last line, not the first

The label is not the source of truth for allergens. The PDF shows the facility code and child code, the meal name, and dishes with substitutes, exclusions and comments — no name and no diet name. By default it mainly prints containers with changes, not every standard lunch.

Safety starts when the menu matches exclusions before anyone prints a PDF. That is why the dietician and orders must be the same system.

What this means

  • Children's allergens and dish allergens live in one catering system.
  • A conflict is visible during planning; saving the plan is still the dietician's call.
  • The label helps the kitchen issue changes — it does not replace allergen checks.