Nut-Free Catering

Nut-free is two different orders wearing one label. Ask before you ask for menus: is this a diagnosed allergy, or a preference someone keeps at home?

A preference is a menu instruction. Keep nuts off the dishes, label the table, done. An anaphylactic allergy changes the process instead of the menu. The standard there is a sealed meal built for that person by a kitchen that has answered a direct question about what else it handles.

Ask quietly, alongside headcount. People who carry a severe allergy know their own rules better than any menu screen.

A dish with no nuts in it is not the same thing as a kitchen that handles no nuts. That gap is what the line “made in a facility that processes tree nuts” is admitting. The recipe is clean. The pastry bench and the shared fryer oil are a separate promise.

A preference stops at the recipe. A diagnosed allergy needs the narrower question: can you prepare this meal with no nut contact during prep, yes or no. A clean no beats a soft yes, because the hedge is the kitchen telling you the exposure is real.

Nuts garnish office food rather than carry it, so nut-free is a sourcing instruction, not a premium tier.

Nuts concentrate in a few predictable places, which makes the spread easier to control than it sounds.

• Desserts and baked goods, by a wide margin: cookies, brownies, baklava, anything with a crumble on top.
• Salad toppings: candied pecans, sliced almonds, the granola beside a yogurt bar.
• Sauces: pesto carries pine nuts, satay carries peanut, some richer curries are thickened with cashew.
• Breakfast, where trail mix, nut butters, and muffins arrive together.

The rest of the table is quieter than people expect: grilled proteins, rice and grains, roasted vegetables, and hot mains generally carry none. Italian catering is a forgiving bench, with the exposure confined to pesto and dessert.

Four rules cover almost every office order.

• Label every platter, including the safe ones, so nobody has to walk over and ask.
• Keep one dessert tray nut-free and set it apart, since crumbs travel.
• For a diagnosed allergy, order a sealed meal with the person’s name on the lid, so nobody takes it by mistake.
• Raise the allergy at booking, in the conversation that sets the menu. At the delivery door it is a warning, not a plan.

For the full allergen protocol, cross-contact and labeling included, read allergy-safe boxed lunches. Gluten-free catering splits along the same medical-versus-preference line. Give CaterAi the allergy with your headcount, and kitchens that cannot answer the prep question never reach your shortlist. Every restriction we order around is indexed on the dietary catering hub.