An Allergy Friendly Review - Cold Stone

I was impressed recently and so I just have to share it. With Sweetheart's allergies we find it is much easier (and way cheaper, and most of the time yummier) to just fix our own food at home. Food places out in the big, wide world are getting better about working with people with food allergies, but it can still be such a pain that we don't venture out much.

Recently we wanted an ice cream fix, and so we decided to brave Cold Stone. I've been there plenty before but had never tried to take Sweetheart there. I went to their website before we left and was able to print off a list of all their flavors and what allergens each contains. There were surprisingly quite a few that she could eat, but I was still worried about the mix-ins. Of course we wouldn't choose any peanut containing mix-ins for her, but what if there was some left on the counter? Or, they use the same scoops for everyone, what if some is left on one of the scoops? Even a teeny bit would mean a trip to the emergency room, so I decided to just ask and see if they had something special they did for allergy people.

I have to say that I was so impressed. When it was my turn, all I had to say was, "She has a peanut allergy," and before I could finish asking if there was something special they did, the lady was already in the back grabbing some clean scoops and a clean tray to mix it on. This is probably old news to a lot of food allergy people, I know that the world is becoming more aware and doing lots of things to help with the problem, but it was so great not to have them look at me like I was nuts (Haha, get it? You laughed, you know it.) for worrying about a teeny bit of peanut getting in my daughter's food.

So hooray for Cold Stone! Thank you for being so awesome, for educating your people and for taking it seriously. Sweetheart thought going out for ice cream was the best thing ever, and it was wonderful that we didn't have to worry about a possible exposure. Hooray for no trip to the emergency room!

*Disclaimer - Cold Stone has no idea I'm writing this post. I just like to pass on when I see something awesome!