The founder
Why Chris Faulkes built SafePlate
SafePlate is a free UK site for finding restaurants, cafes and pubs when you are eating out with a food allergy. Chris Faulkes built it. He is anaphylactic to peanuts and severely allergic to mustard.
Those two facts are the reason peanut and mustard are treated as seriously as the rest of the UK’s 14 allergens, rather than as a garnish and a snack. Eating out with either of them depends on a kitchen that can say what went into the food. SafePlate is a way to search places, keep an Allergy Confidence Score honest when there is no menu on file, and show a chef card instead of relying on memory in a noisy room.
Why I built SafePlate
I have lived with anaphylaxis to peanuts and a severe mustard allergy. Every time I eat out, those two foods have to be explained, not guessed. On a trip to Disneyland Paris, no tool existed to help me explain my allergies there, so I made my own laminated allergy card. That card is what led me to build SafePlate.
Searching the site is free. The usable card, filled in from your own foods and ready to show or print, is part of SafePlate Plus, including in French for a kitchen at the park. The practical side of that trip, using Disney’s own allergy leaflets, is here: eating at Disneyland Paris with a food allergy. The wider park search sits on allergies at Disneyland.
What the site will tell you
You set the foods you avoid. Search looks for restaurants, cafes and pubs, using OpenStreetMap. In the UK a food hygiene rating can appear beside a listing. That rating is about hygiene standards. The allergy score is separate, from 0 to 100, and only when a menu or a visitor note mentions the food. Otherwise it stays Unknown.
Anyone can look at a sample chef card, in English and in French, on the chef card page. The usable card is in 38 languages. Languages we are not highly confident about are marked beta, please double-check. Filling the card in from your profile, then showing it or printing it, is part of SafePlate Plus. It lists what must not be eaten, how severe it is, and a request to check shared fryers, sauces, garnishes and boards. It is a communication aid, not a medical document. Search itself stays free.
What it will not do
SafePlate does not decide that a kitchen is allergen-free. It does not replace your allergist, and it does not replace the conversation when you order. A high score, a hygiene sticker and a confident server can all be true at the same time as a sauce that still contains the food you avoid. Confirm the plate.
City guides and allergen guides explain how to ask. They do not recommend named restaurants, because a recommendation would pretend this site had inspected them.
Questions people ask
Who built SafePlate?
Chris Faulkes. He has lived with anaphylaxis to peanuts and a severe mustard allergy. On a trip to Disneyland Paris he made his own laminated allergy card, because no tool existed to help him explain his allergies there, and that led him to build SafePlate. Search stays free. With SafePlate Plus you can fill in your own card and show or print it.
Does the founder story mean a restaurant is safe for peanut or mustard?
No. Chris’s allergies are why the product treats peanut and mustard seriously. They are not a test of any kitchen. SafePlate does not certify restaurants. You still confirm the meal with the people cooking it.
Is SafePlate medical advice?
No. It is guidance for eating out. Allergy profiles stay on your device. Scores stay unknown until a menu or a visitor note mentions the food. For diagnosis and for what you personally must avoid, talk to your doctor or allergist. In the UK, call 999 if you think someone is having anaphylaxis.