Allergy Intake
You send each allergic guest's name, table, allergen and severity: intolerance, allergy or anaphylaxis risk. We also ask whether the guest carries an epinephrine auto-injector, so the team leader knows before service begins.
Dietary
Allergy-Friendly Catering in Medellín
Medellin Elite Catering plans event menus for guests with food allergies, from one nut-allergic child at a birthday party to a conference with a dozen declared allergens. Every allergy request is recorded, cooked to a written plan and served on a plate that carries the guest's name.
Allergy catering is where honesty matters most. We explain what our controls can do, where they stop, and we never promise more than our kitchen can deliver.
Our cooks and servers hold food-handler certificates renewed every year, and an allergen briefing opens every staffed event we have run since 2019.
- Itemized quotes available
- Bilingual English and Spanish coordinators
Plan your event
Our Allergy-Friendly Catering
Allergy-friendly catering means a menu designed around the allergens on your guest list, prepared with separated equipment and served with clear labels. Common requests include peanuts and tree nuts, shellfish, dairy, eggs and fish, followed by soy, sesame and sulfites.
We cater allergy-aware school events, children's parties, conferences and weddings. For school event catering, the entire menu is often made nut-free, so teachers do not have to police the snack table.
Where a guest's allergy is shared by many people, such as dairy at a large corporate event, we usually make the relevant buffet dishes free of it rather than preparing dozens of separate plates. Severe or unusual allergies still get a named plate, cooked to the plan described below.
The Major Allergens We Track
We track the eight allergen groups that Colombia's Resolution 5109 of 2005 requires on packaged food labels, plus sesame and any other ingredient a guest names. The resolution, since updated by Resolution 557 of 2022, covers packaged products rather than freshly cooked catering, but we use its list so our menu cards match the labels guests already know.
| Allergen group | Where it hides in Colombian and party food |
|---|---|
| Cereals with gluten | Beer-braised meats, bouillon cubes, Pony Malta, some bakery pandebono |
| Crustaceans | Shrimp in ceviche bases, seafood stock in arroz con mariscos and cazuela |
| Eggs | Salsa rosada and mayonnaise, buñuelos, egg wash on baked pastries, meringue |
| Fish | Anchovy in Caesar dressing, Worcestershire sauce, fish stock in coastal rice |
| Peanuts and soy | Ají de maní with empanadas de pipián, satay sauces, soy sauce, soy lecithin in chocolate |
| Milk, including lactose | Butter on arepas, quesito, suero costeño, arequipe, cream in ajiaco |
| Tree nuts | Almond flour cakes, marzipan, pesto, macadamia brittle, cashew-based vegan cheese |
| Sulfites (10 mg/kg or more) | Wine, raisins and dried fruit, some frozen shrimp |
| Sesame (on request) | Tahini in hummus, sesame oil, seeded bread rolls |
Each recipe in our kitchen has a sheet listing every ingredient and sub-ingredient, which is how a server can answer "does the salsa have peanuts?" with certainty. When a bought-in product changes its recipe, we update the sheet before it is used again.
Nut-Free Events
We can make an entire event menu nut-free, with no peanuts, tree nuts or nut oils in any dish, sauce, garnish or dessert. Our production kitchen uses nuts on other days, so for nut-free events we schedule prep after a full clean and keep nut products sealed in a separate bin away from the work area.
Every bought-in item, from chocolate to cookies and granola, is checked for "puede contener maní" or "trazas de nueces" warnings, and anything carrying them stays off the menu. Desserts are made in-house where we can control them: brownies without walnuts, vanilla cookies, fruit salad and cupcakes with buttercream instead of praline.
At a party, the risk often walks in through the door, so we ask hosts to remind families not to send nut snacks or treat bags. Our kids' birthday party catering works this way by default whenever a child with a nut allergy is on the list.
How We Plan Allergy Meals
Every allergy meal follows the same five steps, from the first form to the moment the plate reaches the guest. The process is the same at a hotel terrace wedding as at a salón social in catering in Sabaneta.
Written Plan
Our head chef and your coordinator write a plan for each guest, listing the dishes, ingredients, swaps and equipment. You confirm it with the final headcount, 7 days before the event or 10 days before a wedding.
Separate Preparation
Allergy plates are cooked first in the day with purple-handled boards, knives and tongs on a sanitized surface. Each container is labeled with the guest's name, the allergens it is free from, the cook's initials and the time it was made.
Team Briefing
Before doors open, the team leader walks every server through the named plates, table numbers and recipe sheets. Each plate is assigned to one server, who is the only person to carry it.
Served First, Covered
Named plates go out before the rest of the table, still covered, and are uncovered only in front of the guest. Nothing is passed hand to hand across a table, and second helpings come from the kitchen, not the buffet.
What We Can and Cannot Guarantee
We can guarantee that a dish was made without a named allergen, to a written plan, using separated equipment and checked ingredients. We cannot guarantee zero trace contact, because our kitchen also handles wheat, nuts, dairy, shellfish and eggs, and some ingredients come from factories that do too.
Guests with life-threatening allergies should bring their own medication, tell their table companions and introduce themselves to our team leader on arrival. If a risk is beyond what our controls can manage, we will say so and offer a simple single-ingredient meal, or plate and serve food the guest brings from home.
For corporate clients who need allergen documentation, our corporate event catering team can supply ingredient sheets for every dish with the quote. These sheets list allergens per dish so your HR or events team can share them with attendees in advance.
Questions and answers
Allergy FAQs
Can you make a whole event nut-free?
Yes, we can make every dish on an event menu free of peanuts and tree nuts, including sauces, cooking oils and desserts. It works when we know at quote stage, when the bought-in items we need are available without trace warnings, and when no nut products arrive from outside, such as a cake from another bakery. Our kitchen handles nuts on other days, so we call these nut-free menus rather than a nut-free facility.
How do servers know which plate is allergy-safe?
Each allergy plate leaves the kitchen covered, with a purple label showing the guest's name, table number and the allergens it is free from. At the pre-service briefing, the team leader assigns each named plate to one server, who carries it to the guest before the rest of the table is served. At buffets, allergic guests receive their plate from the kitchen rather than serving themselves.
Reserve your date
Plan an Allergy-Friendly Event
Use the quote form to tell us your date, guest count and the allergies on your list, including how severe they are. We will reply with an itemized quote within 24 hours, or write to info@medellincatering.com first if you have questions.
- Itemized quotes available
- Menus, staff, tableware, setup and cleanup in one quote
- Food-handler certified team and labeled allergens on every tray
- Monday to Saturday
- 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
- Sunday
- Closed (events still run)