Planning catering for dietary restrictions

This is planning guidance, not medical advice. For severe allergies, the guest themselves is the best source of what is safe.

Collect the right information

Add a dietary question to your RSVP and make it specific: allergies (and how severe), medical diets such as coeliac disease, religious requirements, and preferences such as vegetarian or vegan. Keep a list with names, so special meals can be labelled and served to the right person.

Know the difference

• Allergies and coeliac disease need protection from cross-contact, not just a different dish. Ask the caterer how they prepare, store, transport and serve these meals.
• Religious requirements can involve sourcing and preparation rules. For kosher events, ask what supervision or certification applies; for halal, ask about sourcing and certification.
• Vegetarian and vegan meals are often easier to provide well, but ask whether they are a real dish or just the sides without the protein. Vegetarian · vegan
• Gluten-free may be a preference or a medical need; tell the caterer which. Gluten-free caterers

Brief the caterer

• Give exact counts for each requirement, with names for allergies.
• Ask whether they can label every dish with its main allergens.
• Ask whether special meals are prepared separately and delivered sealed or plated to the guest.
• Confirm the final dietary list along with the final headcount.

On TopCaterers, dietary tags such as allergen-friendly come from the caterer’s own description of what they offer. They are a starting point for your questions, not a guarantee.

Serve it safely

• At a buffet, put plainly labelled dishes where guests can see them, keep separate serving utensils, and consider letting guests with restrictions go first.
• For severe allergies, a plated or individually packed meal served directly to the guest is usually safer than a shared buffet.
• Make sure the on-site staff know which guests have special meals.