LEARN about The Food Allergy Friendly Network:
Click any item for more detail:

• What is The Food Allergy Friendly Network?
• What does the Food Allergy Friendly logo represent?
• What is Mad Flavor Foods?
• Who should become Registered Users? And what are the benefits?
• Who should become Members?
• What population of the US Market is represented by people with food allergies?
• What can you expect from a Member Restaurant?
• What can you expect from a Member Retailer?
• What can you expect from a Member Food Product (manufacturer)?
• What are the Guidelines for Membership?
• Why you should join THE FOOD ALLERGY FRIENDLY NETWORK?
• The Benefits of Joining THE FOOD ALLERGY FRIENDLY NETWORK
• Advantages and Differences of Network Membership
• What distinguishes us from other directories or product catalogs?
• What is Targeted Logo-Linked Advertising?

What is The Food Allergy Friendly Network?
THE FOOD ALLERGY FRIENDLY NETWORK links restaurants, retailers, products and advertising, with the individual sufferers of all of the common food allergens and chemical sensitivities. The providers are easily identifiable by using one common, easily identifiable logo.

What does the Food Allergy Friendly logo represent?
The Food Allergy Friendly logo identifies Members of The Food Allergy Friendly Network. These can be Restaurants, Retailers or Manufacturers of food products, all of whom are dedicated to meeting the needs of people with food allergies or a chemical sensitivity, and meet our stringent Guidelines for Membership.

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What is Mad Flavor Foods?
Mad Flavor Foods is an affiliate company, producing a line of seasoning blends made with organic ingredients and processed/packaged in a facility that does NOT process peanuts or tree nuts. They are all flavor, and no junk! These seasoning blends cater especially to those of us with multiple food allergies. All of our Member restaurants will have a supply of these seasonings and use upon request to prepare your meals.

Who should become a Registered User and What are the benefits?
For starters, it’s completely FREE!
Anyone interested in enjoying a diet that is free from the most commonly known food allergens (wheat, gluten, soy, dairy, eggs, nuts, peanuts, fish or shellfish) or food chemical additives, preservatives and flavor enhancers such as MSG should become a registered user. As a registered user you can:

• Search our nationwide directory of Member Restaurants, Retailers and Food Products.
• Customize and print your own Dietary Restriction Dining Cards.
• Receive email updates of new Members in your specified region or food allergen category.
• Join our Member Referral Incentive Program.

Please visit the USER PAGES for more Benefits of Registration and to Join Today!

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Who should become Members?
Members in THE FOOD ALLERGY FRIENDLY NETWORK are the restaurants, retailers and companies who serve, prepare or manufacture food and are committed to making the lives of people with food allergies more enjoyable.

All Members, and their employees, have the education, knowledge and understanding necessary to:

1. Take the precautions to reduce or eliminate known food allergen use
2. Label and identify their products beyond what is merely required by law
3. Seek the use of food allergen substitutes when possible
4. Discuss a customer’s specific requirements in an intelligent and respectful manner
5. Adjust their menu items to prepare and provide food that is both free from specific ingredients while still delicious and served in an enjoyable atmosphere.

If you are in the food service or food product industry and are interested in tapping into a growing US market of customers with food allergies, then you will want to learn more about Membership. Click here for detailed info on Why you should join THE FOOD ALLERGY FRIENDLY NETWORK.

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What population of the US Market is represented by people with food allergies?
Over 12 million people are diagnosed with food allergies. As high as that number is it does not come close to the growing population of people who find that their blood tests do not show a true allergy but still they have adverse reactions to many food and chemicals added to foods and beverages.

The number that represents intolerance of lactose alone is more than double; it is estimated that approximately 30 million American adults suffer from varying degrees of lactose intolerance (National Institute of Health).

Wheat is considered one of the top 8 nationally recognized food allergens and represents over 2 million Americans; this is one of the more commonly known conditions, Celiac disease. (National Institute of Health).

The number of people affected by seafood allergies is close to 7 million. Knowing this is affecting so many Americans, it is no surprise to find that the number of patients seen for food allergies has increased 10 times since 1991. (Children’s Hospital Of Boston-2005).

What can you expect from a Member Restaurant?
When you see the Food Allergy Friendly logo at a restaurant, or find one listed on our Network, you can be assured:

• You will be greeted and respected as a valuable patron.
• The server will understand your needs and explain what their restaurant has to offer, or can adapt to meet your specific requirements.
• You will be offered Mad Flavor Foods brand seasoning blends as organic, preservative-free and filler-free options to enhance the flavor of your Food Allergy Friendly meal.
• They have been through our qualifying and training program.

What can you expect from a Member Retailer?
All Member Retailers offer at least one registered Member food product that has been qualified by THE FOOD ALLERGY FRIENDLY NETWORK and meets our Guidelines for Membership.

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What can you expect from a Member Food Product (manufacturer)?
When you see the Food Allergy Friendly logo on a product, or find its manufacturer listed on our Network, you can be assured, that the product’s manufacturer strives to:

• Provide a clearly labeled product, alerting the consumer to any known food allergen risk.
• Has sought the use of alternative ingredients when possible.
• Has removed fillers and chemical preservatives when possible.
• Has not added known food allergens to a product that is already free of known food allergens.
• Has been individually qualified by THE FOOD ALLERGY FRIENDLY NETWORK.

What are the Guidelines for Membership?
This is a summary of the guidelines. For a detailed description of the guidelines as well as contractual obligation of Membership, please visit either the RESTAURANT or RETAILER & PRODUCT Membership pages.

• All applications for Membership are reviewed by Food Allergy Friendly, LLC for specific compliance relevant to the type of Membership being requested.
• All Restaurant Members must certify that they will always have at least one Food Allergy Friendly trained employee on site during operating hours. They must abide by all training protocol.
• All Restaurant Members must declare their Food Allergy Friendly menu items (including all ingredients used) for review and approval by Food Allergy Friendly, LLC.
• All Restaurant Members must certify that they will maintain a stock of Mad Flavor Foods brand seasoning blends to be used upon request.
• All Retailer Members must offer at least one registered Member food product.
• All Food Product (manufacturer) Members must submit an application for each product they wish to register. Manufacturing facility certification must be provided. All applications are reviewed by Food Allergy Friendly, LLC.
• We will deny Membership to any Restaurant, Retailer, or Food Product (manufacturer) that does not meet or agree to our requirements. Additionally, all Registered Users are encouraged to submit reviews and rate each Member. Any poor ratings will be reviewed by Food Allergy Friendly, LLC and, if deemed necessary, Membership may be revoked.
• Membership is restrictive.

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Why you should join THE FOOD ALLERGY FRIENDLY NETWORK?
Let’s consider other food allergy websites. Most of these are single allergen focused. There is a lot of information and websites for people with gluten allergies (Celiac disease) or for children with peanut allergies. Each of these is a great source of information for the specific individual and offers a great service. However, there are too many different sites to select from and these don’t offer much for someone with a dairy, soy or multiple allergy. This also does not include someone just looking for a restaurant or food product that doesn’t use MSG or chemical preservatives. How would that person ever know to look on a Celiac Disease resource site? Most of these resource sites don’t advertise much as they are intended to be sources of information, not marketing tools.

Most other network sites charge their Users the membership dues. We don’t charge individuals anything to use the Network and search for a restaurant, retailer or product Member. We even offer our individual registered users more than that. We offer free, individual customized dietary restriction cards to better communicate their needs to servers/greeters at our Member restaurants. We offer them email notification of newly added Members in their area of choice.

It should be easy to see the benefit of one single website, dedicated to finding restaurants, retailers and food products that meet the variety of food allergen and chemical sensitivity needs. Using a common logo to advertise restaurants, retailers and food products brings the network full circle; always advertising the network and its members.

THE FOOD ALLERGY FRIENDLY NETWORK is a linked community of people with food allergies and the companies and restaurants dedicated to serving their dietary requests.

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The Benefits of Joining THE FOOD ALLERGY FRIENDLY NETWORK
The FOOD ALLERGY FRIENDLY NETWORK links restaurants, retailers, products and advertising, using one single, common, easily identifiable logo with the individual sufferers of all of the common food allergens and chemical sensitivities.

We offer each Member more targeted national advertising than could ever be achieved if purchasing it on their own.

The FOOD ALLERGY FRIENDLY NETWORK pools its membership dues to advertise the network in national magazines and publications dedicated to readers with food allergies or chemical intolerance. We also use optimized internet search word advertising so that our Network, and its Members are easily found when doing a search. This is how a Member in small town America can get national advertising at a fraction of the cost.

But, we offer even more than that!!!

By licensing the Food Allergy Friendly logo to manufacturers of various products dedicated to the needs of food allergen and chemical intolerance sufferers, each product is an advertisement for the Network and its Members.

Someone shopping at a Member retailer buys an MSG-free spice blend that has the Food Allergy Friendly logo and Network website. They visit the website and search for and find a restaurant in their area that offers a Food Allergy Friendly menu. The same is true for someone who dines at a Member restaurant, then visits the network and finds all of the Member products and a retailer in their area where the items can be purchased.

Advantages and Differences of Network Membership:
You may already advertise in a magazine, book, or national guide. But, in order for these to bring a customer to you, that customer must first purchase the magazine, book or guides where you chose to advertise. Most people don’t want to spend the $20 or $30 to buy a national restaurant guide if they are just looking for a restaurant in the area where they live. Furthermore, most national guides only offer listings for large market areas such as New York, Chicago, Miami, etc. This is of no benefit to someone living in small town America. The same is true of national magazines. A single advertisement in one issue of a national magazine could cost thousands of dollars. Advertising in generic national directories can cost hundreds of dollars each month! This is not a very effective use of your advertising budget.

What distinguishes us from other directories or product catalogs?
Many phone or address directories, or even other on-line restaurant directories are simple listings and will list any paying client. They may even categorize the restaurants as having a “natural” menu or maybe even a "food allergen" menu. But quite plainly, they are listing whatever information that their paying client tells them to display in the listing.
THE FOOD ALLERGY FRIENDLY NETWORK will only list its Members. These Members are contractually obligated to meet our Term of Membership.

Any failure to meet these Term of Membership is cause to deny Membership.

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What is Targeted Logo-Linked Advertising?

Using one common logo, each Member group helps to advertise the other Member groups.
All share the same common logo.
Targeted advertising, using the common logo then advertises the network to the people with food allergies or chemical sensitivity.
Once on the network, a person can search for a Member in their area.


The people who are already using a non-Member product or visit a non-Member retailer or restaurant, and want to recommend these to other people with food allergies can use our Member Referral Incentive Program.

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