Site Guide
How We Handle Dietary and Allergy Information
Dietary and allergy guidance on this site is designed to improve questions, not to certify safety.
Core principle
A page can identify common risk signals such as soy sauce, wheat wrappers, oyster sauce, pork broth, sesame paste, Shaoxing wine, peanuts, dried shrimp, or shared fryers. It cannot know what a specific restaurant used today.
Cross-contact can happen through shared fryers, prep surfaces, tongs, and ladles even when the ingredient list looks safe. Packaged foods follow formal allergen-label rules, but restaurant dishes often depend on staff knowledge and recipe consistency instead of standardized labels. Sauces, broths, marinades, and garnish blends are some of the easiest places for allergens to stay undeclared on restaurant menus.
What we emphasize
| Topic | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Hidden ingredients | Chinese menu names often do not disclose soy sauce, oyster sauce, broth, lard, alcohol, wheat starch, or dried seafood. |
| Shared equipment | Woks, steamers, fryers, cutting boards, sauce ladles, and boiling baskets can create cross-contact. |
| Restaurant format | Dim sum, hot pot, barbecue windows, bakeries, and takeout kitchens have different risk patterns. |
| Communication | Chinese phrases can help, but they are not a substitute for ingredient and preparation questions. |
| Medical seriousness | Strict allergy, celiac, or religious dietary needs require direct restaurant confirmation. |
Reader guidance
- Ask about sauces, broths, marinades, wrappers, and shared equipment.
- Do not rely on English menu names alone.
- Use simpler dishes when the restriction is important.
- Leave if staff cannot answer basic preparation questions and the risk is medically serious.