Internet DRAFT - draft-barnes-healthy-food
draft-barnes-healthy-food
Network Working Group M. Barnes
Internet-Draft Polycom
Intended status: Informational July 16, 2013
Expires: January 17, 2014
Healthy Food and Special Dietary Requirements for IETF meetings
draft-barnes-healthy-food-07
Abstract
This document describes the basic requirements for food for folks
that attend IETF meetings require special diets, as well as those
that prefer to eat healthy. While, the variety of special diets is
quite broad, the most general categories are described. There can be
controversy as to what constitutes healthy eating, but there are some
common, generally available foods that comprise the basis for healthy
eating and special diets. This document provides some
recommendations to meeting planners, as well as participants, in
handling these requirements.
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This Internet-Draft will expire on January 17, 2014.
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Copyright (c) 2013 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
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to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Conventions and Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4. Requirements for Special Diets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5. Venue Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
6. Meeting Coordination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
7. Venue and Food Service Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
8. Participant Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
9. Specific Food Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
10. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
11. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
12. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
13. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
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1. Introduction
While much of the success of IETF protocols can be attributed to the
availability of large cookies and readily available beer, there are
some IETF participants for whom such items aren't compatible with
dietary restrictions or the choice to eat a healthy diet. So, while
the IETF Tao [RFC6722] describes the IETF as "a place to go for 'many
fine lunches and dinners'", for folks with dietary restrictions,
meals can require the most planning and be one the most stressful
aspect of the meetings. Certainly, the tao clearly states that folks
are on their own for lunches and dinners, however, the meeting fee
does cover (some of) the cost for the food provided at breakfasts and
breaks. The dietary restrictions are quite varied, but fall into
general catgories based typically on medical, religious, health and
ethical reasons. While [RFC6640] describes some food considerations
which are very useful for the average attendee, it intentionally does
not address the dietary restrictions described in this document.
Most folks are generally understanding of dietary restrictions for
medical conditions such as diabetes, celiac disease, and folks with
severe allergies to foods such as peanuts that cause immediate
anaphylactic and often life threatening reactions. In general, folks
respect the special diets required for religious reasons and for
folks who have chosen to follow a healthy and vegan/vegetarian diet,
which for some folks also has a religious basis. More subtle food
allergies and sensitivies, as well as less common medical conditions
(e.g., PKU) can sometimes be more difficult to handle, both in terms
of the understanding by the general public and food service staff.
It is also important to note that these dietary restrictions are not
just an inconvenience, but rather they can introduce a barrier to
full participation by a subset of the population. The logistics
involved in obtaining the appropriate food can interfere with
participation in the meeting sessions, as well as informal
discussions.
2. Overview
In general, most folks on restricted diets are very resourceful in
terms of researching the meeting venue and determining availability
of "safe foods". Folks with these food restrictions typically are
proficient at managing these situations provided they have access to
information or are able to talk directly with food service staff, in
particular the head chef. However, in some cases, this can be more
difficult in terms of access to the "safe food" when folks are in
foreign countries where their native language (or a language in which
they are very fluent) is not widely understood or when the meeting
venue is in a more remote geograhic location. Indeed, many of the
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folks with dietary restrictions arrive at the meetings early enough
to scout out locations for finding "safe food". However, at times,
the hotels modify their typical food service offerings, such as
ordering from menus to just providing a more restricted subset of
food choices, to optimize the handling of the large crowds and
limited time during the lunch period. Typically, the extra food
service areas (carts, etc.) that some meeting venues use to handle
the lunch crowds do not offer any food appropriate for several of the
dietary restrictions. Meeting venues that are not co-located with
the meeting hotel, in particular those that are not located in the
city center, typically introduce the most problems in terms of
availability of safe food. The cafes that may be located at the
venue typically do not have any safe foods available and often the
availability of food for participants in the general area of the
venue (i.e., close enough so folks can get back to the venue for
afternoon meetings) is very limited at these locations.
Many folks with dietary restrictions compensate for the lack of
readily available safe food by bringing food from home to the
meeting. In the case where the meeting is in the home country, there
is likely no issue with this practice. However, many meetings
require a large number of IETF participants to travel to foreign
countries, many of whom prohibit the participants from bringing
outside food. Since the food from home often provides a large part
of the sustenance for participants with restricted diets, this can
introduce a large problem - either the participant goes without or
they violate the laws of a particular country and don't declare the
food to avoid confiscation. While folks with restrictions due to
medical conditions can bring a doctor's letter, there is still a risk
of the food being confiscated, since it is highly unlikely that the
folks handling the situation are able to make a decision outside the
rules with or without the letter. Certainly, participants have a
choice, although difficult in cases where the meetings are required
for their jobs, as to whether or not they attend a meetings. IETF is
an open and inclusive organization, thus facilitating accessiblity to
safe foods should be a human factors consideration for the meetings.
In addition, laws in some countries (e.g., American Disabilities Act
in the U.S.) classify some medical conditions as invisible
disabilities (e.g., celiac disease, food allergies, hearing issues)
and thus require that accommodations be made for dietary restrictions
for medical reasons, in the same way as accommodations are made for
other disabilities. The American Disabilities Act applies to non-
profit agencies that serve the public.
The objective of this document is to summarize some common
requirements for all special diets. The focus of this document is to
provide information for individuals/organization that choose venues
(Section 5), meeting organizers (Section 6), participants (Section 8)
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and the meeting venue staff (Section 7) to meet some basic
requirements for these dietary restrictions. It is recommended that
these recommendations be more formally adopted by the first two
groups (i.e., those that choose venues and those that organize and
run the logistics for the meeting) into their procedures.
This document is not intended to provide comprehensive information
about any of these dietary restrictions, but rather the restrictions
are described in a very general sense, with a few examples, to
provide the context for the recommendations in this document. The
references include cookbooks that are representative of the special
diets discussed in this document. Most of these cookbooks provide a
basic overview of particular dietary restriction, lists of safe
ingredients, etc. There are a plethora of websites with tons of more
information on this topic and specific dietary restrictions.
In addition, this document discusses the importance of providing
remote attendance for folks whose conditions limit their ability to
travel. It is hoped that by increasing the availability of foods for
folks with these restrictions could increase the ability for some
folks to attend the face to face meetings.
While discussion of this document was originally targeted for the
ietf-food@employees.org mailing list, it has become increasingly
clear that this is something that the community as a whole needs to
understand, thus the author is prepared to open the floodgates again,
in particular due to the decision to hold yet another meeting in a
remote location (IETF-86) in Orlando, without consideration of these
requirements.
3. Conventions and Terminology
This document uses the following terms:
Celiac disease: A medical condition which requires a diet entirely
free of wheat, rye, barley and most oats. The reaction, as in
food allergies, is to the protein in these grains, which is
gliaden or most often referred to as gluten. Of particular
concern for this dietary restriction is that even the smallest
amount of the offending food can trigger the manifestion of the
illness. This website provides an excellent overview:
<http://celiac.nih.gov/>
Food additives: Anything added to food which is typically not
natural in origin, such as artificial flavors, artificial colors/
dyes, nitrates/nitrites, sufites/sulfates, mono-sodium glutamate
(MSG). This list is not comprehensive and some of these additives
(i.e., the latter three) are naturally occurring in foods,
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however, the levels/volume of the substance is a fraction of what
is typically added to foods.
Food allergies: Typically refers to a food to which one has a fairly
immediate and sometimes anaphylactic reaction. These allergies
are typically recognized in that folks produced IgE antibodies to
a specific food. There are also foods in which the reaction is
delayed and one typically produces IgG antibodies. There are also
acute mucousal reactions such as to gluten, in which case IgA
antibodies are produced. It is not uncommon for folks with food
allergies to also have food intolerances.
Food intolerances: Food intolerances can be less severe than food
allergies in that the reaction is often delayed and isn't
typically life threatening. The reactions cover a very broad
range of symptoms such as gastrointestinal reactions (e.g., from
dairy or gluten), oral reactions (swelling, mouth ulcers, etc.)
flu-like symptoms such as overall muscle aches, headaches,
fatigue, sinus congestion, etc. In a small subset of folks, there
can be fairly severe neurological impacts producing ADD/ADHD
symptoms, severe anger, seizures, etc.
Halal: Halal is commonly used to refer to food that is permissible
according to Islamic law and is special diet followed by most
Muslims. One of the areas of most concern for this diet is the
source and processing of meat. In one sense, the Halal
requirements are extremely close to Kashrut standards followed by
those who consume a Kosher Diet. As with a Kosher diet, pork is
never acceptable.
Healthy: In the most general sense, healthy refers to a diet that is
typically void of processed foods, highly processed sweeteners,
food additives, food preservatives, hydrogenated oils, etc. In
some cases folks such as those on Vegetarian and Vegan diets would
add animal fats to this list. And, obviously, foods with wheat
are not considered healthy for celiacs, even foods with natural
sweeteners are often unhealthy and of course, any food to which
one is allergic is not healthy. So, in this document, the terms
is used to refer to a diet based on vegetables and some fruits,
along with appropriate proteins, grains, and healthy fats, all of
which are suitable for a variety of special diets.
Kosher: A Kosher diet is based on specific rules for food source,
preparation and handling that are typically followed by many Jews.
The strictest rules are around the source and preparation of
meats. In particular meat and dairy must not be mixed and in most
cases utensils that have been used to prepare non-Kosher foods
cannot be used. Pork is considered non-kosher.
Phenylketonuria (PKU): A medical condition requiring a low protein
diet and avoidance of any food containing phenylalanine (e.g.,
aspartame). The diet for PKU is often comprised of large amounts
of fruits and vegetables in specific portions since the daily
intake of protein must be monitored. Grains can be consumed in
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moderation. The manner in which the food is prepared must be
known as ingredients used in cooking and added prior to serving
(e.g., butter) need to be identified as they can contribute to the
total amount of protein.
Special Diet: Special Diet: Refers to any diet for which the source,
method of preparation, handling and serving of the food must all
be known. In this document, this term is used to refer to any of
the dietary restrictions discussed.
Vegan: A Vegan diet entirely excludes the use of animals for food
(including animal by-products such as cow's milk, butter, eggs,
honey, etc.). Many folks adopt a completely vegan lifestyle and
eschew the use of animals or animal by-products for any purpose
(e.g., no leather shoes). In terms of dietary restrictions, one
can view a vegan diet to be a subset of a vegetarian diet.
Vegetarian: A vegetarian diet is one which excludes the consumption
of meat products, usually including fish. Some vegetarian diets
also exclude animal by-products such as egg and dairy.
Vegetarians that do consume egg and dairy products are sometimes
referred to as lactoOvo-vegetarians and those that consume dairy
products, but no eggs, are referred to as lacto-vegetarians.
4. Requirements for Special Diets
While there is no strict definition as to what qualifies as a
"healthy" diet, there are a variety of diets that individuals choose
based upon a desire to maintain good health and prevent disease as
well as to treat specific diseases.
Allergies are a key reason that some folks must follow a specific
diet. In terms of the number of folks that require special diets, it
is estimated that anywhere from 3% to 7% of the population has food
allergies. The top eight allergens are: milk (cow), eggs, peanuts,
tree nuts (such as almonds, cashews, walnuts), fish (such as bass,
cod, flounder), shellfish (such as crab, lobster, shrimp), soy and
wheat. It should be noted that the allergic reactions are to the
protein found in the food. For example, an allergy to milk is most
often due to casein, which is the most common protein found in cow's
milk. Thus, any other food product that also contains casein (e.g.,
butter and cheese) can also cause an allergic reaction. While
intolerances to specific foods may not elicit a true allergic
reaction, individuals with food intolerances typcially must also
avoid the offending food. For example, some individuals are lactose
intolerant and thus they also cannot consume cow's milk as described
on the following website:
<http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/lactoseintolerance/>.
It's estimated that about 5 percent of the U.S. population is
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vegetarian and about 0.2 percent of the U.S. Population being vegan.
Twenty-five percent of the population has the genetic predisposition
to develop celiac disease. It is estimated that as little as 0.3
percent of the individuals with celiac disease have been diagnosed.
Both the U.S. and Europe are actively working to educate the medical
community on the high prevalence of undiagnosed celiac. In some
countries, the rate of diagnosis has doubled in recent years. This
trend is expected to continue, thus as time goes by the need for food
accommodating this diet will increase. As of 2009, about 15% of the
U.S. Population were following a gluten-free diet. Western Europeans
and those of European descent experience the highest incidence of
Celiac disease. Although, it is not specific to those ethnic groups
and has been found in all populations around the world.
Dietary restrictions for religious reasons include those who follow
Halal, Kosher and some folks that follow Vegan/Vegetarian diets.
Halal is commonly used to refer to food that is permissible according
to Islamic law and is special diet followed by most Muslims. One of
the areas of most concern for this diet is the source and processing
of meat. In one sense, the Halal requirements are extremely close to
Kashrut standards followed by those who consume a Kosher Diet. As
with a Kosher diet, pork is never acceptable for a Halal diet. Fish
with scales are considered both Halal and Kosher. Shell fish are
controversial and are a common allergen, thus recommended to be
avoided as part of planning for foods to accommodate a broad range of
dietary restrictions.
Dietary restrictions due to medical conditions impose very stringent
requirements on the food, in particular for allergies and food
intolerances. Celiac disease is a good example of a medical
condition that requires extreme care in the preparation and handling
of the food. In many cases, this requires that the food is not
processed or prepared anywhere near those grains. For example, it
would not be appropriate to use the utensils, bowls or pots/pans that
have been used to prepare foods containing those grains without
thoroughly cleaning and only metal or glass should be used since
trace amounts of the grains can attach to plastics and wood. For
example, this means that neither plastic nor wood cutting boards that
have been used for these grains can be used. Nor, can the foods be
prepared in the same area or even near an area where the grains are
being used for food preparation. In general, this requires
designating ahead of time a specific area to be used for the
preparation of these foods and ensuring that the food preparer and
anyone that handles or serves the food uses appropriate methods to
avoid cross contamination. In terms of serving the food, providing
plastic utensils and dishes, while not environmentally friendly,
helps to avoid one potential area of cross contamination for most of
the diets.
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In general, the same rules that are required for handling food for
medically restricted diets applies to all other special diets in
terms of avoiding cross contamination. Meat products require special
consideration in ensuring that food suitable for vegetarians/vegans
is not contaminated, that appropriate meat products are provided for
folks on Kosher/Halal diets and that the meat products are
unprocessed and thus suitable for most allergy/intolerance special
diets, with the obvious exception that folks that are allergic to
fish can't eat fish, etc..
There are laws in many countries and jurisdictions (e.g.,U.S., E.U.)
that make it illegal to mislabel foods that are Halal or Kosher. At
this time, food manufacturers in many jusisdictions (e.g.,U.S., U.K,
E.U.) must include all ingredients on the labels of any packaged food
product. The following are examples of the requirements for such:
<:http://food.gov.uk:80/foodlabelling/>, <http://ec.europa.eu/food/
food/labellingnutrition/foodlabelling/index_en.htm>,
<http://www.fda.gov/food/labelingnutrition/default.htm>. Many
products also contain designations as to whether the product is
vegetarian or vegan, however, the standards for these labels are not
as clearly specified or restricted. Manufacturers are required to
specifically label the food if it contains any of the top 8
allergens.
In terms of detailed information available to food service
establishments in order to accommodate these special diets, the
(U.S.) National Restaurant Association [NRA] has produced a
comprehensive guide for food service establishments to ensure that
they appropriately handle food specifically for allergies and
intolerance, but could be used to avoid cross contamination and
ensure that only "safe" foods are served.
The fundamental requirements for the provision of food to accommodate
special diets consists of the following:
1. The meetings should be held in a location where markets that sell
foods for special diets are conveniently located.
2. The right food should be accessible to the participants at the
meeting venue.
3. Food that is served at the venue should be prepared and served by
appropriate methods as described above.
4. The meeting coordination and venue staff should be made aware of
participants requiring such food and should be willing to
accommodate such requirements.
The subsequent sections of this document describe the
responsibilities of the following organizations/individuals in
meeting these requirements:
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o The IETF individuals involved in selection and negotiation of the
meeting venue as described in Section 5. In general, this is the
responsibility of the IETF Administrative Oversight Committee
(IAOC), but applies to anyone involved in this role.
o The IETF organization and individuals that handle the coordination
of the meetings such as the meeting registrations and other
logistics, as well, coordination for the provisions at the meeting
venue, as described in Section 6. In general, these are the
responsibilities of the IETF secretariat, but apply to anyone
responsibile for this role.
o The venue staff that are responsible for providing services during
the meeting as described in Section 7.
o The attendees with specific dietary restrictions and requirements
as described in Section 8.
5. Venue Selection
Accommodating the requirements for special diets starts with the
selection of the venue. The following describes some criteria and
suggestions that can significantly impact the availability of foods
for special diets relative to the venue. It is recommended that
these critera and suggestions be considered as part of the evaluation
and negotiation process in the selection of a venue. Other than the
last criteria, if a venue cannot satisfy these criteria, then the
venue should be deemed unsuitable for an IETF meeting.
1. Accessiblity to "healthy" food: Meetings that are located in the
city center of large metropolitan areas significantly increase
the accessibility to foods for special diets. Food markets are
generally within walking distance and the number of restaurant
options improve the potential for a healthy meal. In addition,
the opening hours for food markets don't entirely overlap with
meeting times, thus allowing the attendee to find healthy/safe
food without having to miss a meeting (which is the primary
objective in attending the meetings for most attendees).
2. Onsite accommodations: While the location of the meeting
dramatically impacts the availability of food near the meeting
venue, the logistics of the meetings do require the accessibility
to healthy/safe food during the meetings. The folks that
negotiate the contract should ensure that the venue is willing
and able to make accommodations for basic requirements in
Section 4. Section 7 outlines specific requirements for the
venue and food service staff that provides useful input into this
requirement. Information as to the number of attendees for whom
the accommodations are required can be based on the information
available from previous meetings, with updated information
provided once the majority of the registrations for the meeting
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have been completed. In addition, folks that negotiate the
contract should ensure that attendees are allowed to bring in
outside food and beverage. This is a necessity in the case that
the venue fails to provide adequate food onsite. More
importantly, it is a medical necessity for some folks to always
have specific types of food and drink readily available (e.g.,
for diabetics or others with blood sugar issues).
3. Repeat venues: Meetings that are located where previous meetings
have been held can greatly faciliate (or dramatically inhibit)
the accessiblity to safe/healthy foods. The attendees from
previous meeting (s) already have the information on
accessibility to the healthy/safe foods which should influence
venue selection. If the post-meeting surveys include questions
as to the availability of foods for these specific diets at the
venue, the folks that select the venue know a priori whether the
venue is suitable in this respect. For cases of first time
attendees for a specific location, relevant information can be
gathered from attendees that have previously visited the city.
6. Meeting Coordination
IETF meeting coordination staff are typically pro-active in meeting
the needs of folks with special dietary restrictions when they've
been made aware. The meeting registration form includes a field for
participants to indicate dietary restrictions. Accommodations
including the following have been provided:
o At one venue that served many cookies with nuts, the meeting staff
was able to ask the food service staff at the meeting venue to
have some nut free cookies available and labeled as such.
o The staff are very accommodating in ensuring special meals are
provided to participants that attend meetings where meals are
provided in cases where they have been made aware (e.g., WG chairs
lunch).
o The availability of safe/healthy foods at the breaks has
increased. For example, frozen fruit bars have been available at
the traditional Thursday ice cream social and veggies have been
available at some of the afternoon breaks.
The following summarizes the recommendations for special diets that
meeting planners should be able to accommodate with some pre-
planning, and as noted above have already been pro-active in
accommodating:
1. Ensuring that specific foods for special diets is available at
the IETF meeting hotel restaurants, along with information on the
accessiblity to such in nearby markets/restaurants. These
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accommodations should be available starting on the Friday nite
prior to the meeting week, since some folks arrive early for pre-
meetings and the tools session.
2. Determining special dietary needs of participants during
registration and communicating any additional requirements to the
venue staff and to the meeting hosts that are sponsoring the
Sunday evening reception and social event who may be directly
planning and coordinating the food for those events.
3. Providing information about the provisions for special diets in
the participants IETF registration packet and on the IETF meeting
attendee mailing list.
4. During the meeting, responding to the concerns raised by
participants in terms of the problems encountered. In general,
this requires serving as a facilitator between the participant
and the venue staff. It should be noted, that in general this
situation intervention should only be required in cases where the
participant has done their part with regards to the necessary
accommodations for their special diet per Section 8.
7. Venue and Food Service Recommendations
Since IETF meetings are typically held at full service venues,
accommodating special diets is a service that can typically be
provided, in particular with advance notice that allows the venue to
properly plan. Planning is required to ensure that the basic
requirements identified in Section 4 can be satisfied.
The following summarizes the recommendations for special diets that
the venue and food service staff should be able to accommodate with
some pre-planning and meet all the requirements.
1. Agreement with meeting planners during the contract negotiation
phase that they can at least meet the basic requirements in
Section 4.
2. Providing information about the provisions for special diets on
check-in and readily available at all food service locations
within the venue.
3. Ensuring that specific foods for special diets is purchased in
time to meet the dietary requirements starting on the Friday
night prior to the meeting week, since some folks arrive early
for pre-meetings and tools session.
4. Training chefs if necessary to ensure food for special diets is
properly prepared. Noting, that the majority of chefs receive
training to accommodate special diets. There is a food service
training guide published by the National Restaurant Association
(the other NRA) [NRA] that provides explicit details for
restaurants in accommodating food allergies that applies
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generally to other dietary restrictions.
5. Training waitstaff on the need to clearly document the special
dietary requirements when food is ordered.
6. Training waitstaff to effectively communicate with the food
preparers and servers (which are not always the waitstaff in some
food service locations) to ensure that the preparation, handling
and serving of the food for the specific dietary restriction is
understood.
7. During the meeting, ensuring food that is available at evening
reception, breakfast and snacks is arranged to avoid cross-
contamination. Items of particular concern are ensuring that
products with nuts are clearly labeled and not co-mingled with
nut-free products, meat products are separate from dairy
products, wheat products (e.g., bread, bagels, muffins, etc.) are
separated from safe food items such as fruit and ideally a list
of ingredients is readily available for any prepared foods.
8. Allowing outside food and beverage. While all the items listed
above dramatically increase the accessibility to safe food, there
will still be times that an attendee cannot ascertain whether
certain foods are safe and thus cannot be consumed. In addition,
certain medical conditions require that attendees always have
specific types of food and beverages on hand (e.g., diabetics and
others with blood sugar issues).
While this list might seem quite onerous, a similar approach is used
by a variety of organizations including public schools, overnight
summer camps for kids, airlines that still provide meals for
international flights and a broad range of other conferences from
small to large.
8. Participant Recommendations
The following summarizes the recommendations for special diets for
which the participant is responsible. These recommendations allow
the individual to pro-actively ensure that adequate food is readily
available during the meeting, for lunch in particular:
1. Ensuring that the accommodations booked for the meeting can
accommodate any food or medication which requires special
handling such as refrigeration (e.g., insulin for diabetics and
any other supplements, medications or foods which are important
for other special diets). Many hotels will provide a
refrigerator in the room. Some hotels have microwaves in the
rooms or in common areas. In many cases, it can be a really good
idea to stay at a hotel near the venue, where food preparation
items and refrigerators are standard. Many of the major chains
have residence style hotels and one can often find corporate
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apartments for rent in major cities. For example, there was a
residence type hotel right next to the meeting venue in
Philadelphia. The room rate was identical. There were also two
Whole Foods markets within walking distance. Thus, for folks on
special diets, we really had an optimal setup. Often, the
residence/suite style hotels will also do shopping for you (with
a list provided in the room).
2. Bringing special dietary items (including medications, etc.) that
are typically not generally available, especially in airports or
when arriving off hours in an unfamilar location, in carry on
luggage. It is often very, very helpful (and sometimes
necessary) to have a letter from your healthcare provider
documenting the need to travel with these items. Also, this will
typically allow you to go through security with a freezie pack in
a lunch cooler.
3. Indicating the dietary restriction when registering for the IETF
meeting.
4. Monitoring the IETF "food" mailing list for information as to
availability of specific special diet foods, including food
markets, nearby food service establishments, as well as at the
venue.
5. Gathering the available special diet information upon arriving at
the venue.
6. Sharing information on the IETF "food" or IETF meeting specific
mailing list as to local food service establishments and markets
near the venue during the meeting.
7. Communicating effectively with the food service personnel your
specific dietary needs. While the expectation is that the venue
and meeting planners have done their job, ensuring that one gets
the right food requires effective communication every step of the
way. Thus, the same approach that one uses elsewhere should also
be used at the meetings. One can never assume that everything
has been taken care of by someone else. And, as with anything
that involves many people doing the right thing, there is always
room for human error. A very effective tool for communicating
this information are food allergy cards available on several
websites, some of which allow you to enter all your restrictions
and print them yourself. Others are pre-printed and purchased
from the vendor. These cards can be given to the food service
staff. This is very helpful for staff that are unfamiliar with
handling special dietary requests, as oftentimes these cards
trigger a visit from the chef. In virtually all cases a
discussion with the chef on your dietary requirements results in
the precise food that you have require.
8. Thanking the folks that do take the effort during the meeting to
accommodate your special dietary needs and ensuring that the food
service staff are adequately tipped in locales for which this is
a custom.
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9. Specific Food Recommendations
While specific foods for the special diets can be quite diverse and
sometimes contradictory (e.g., meat for vegans/vegetarians, seitan
for celiacs, etc.), there are also sufficient readily available foods
that can meet the requirements of the majority of the special diets.
There are a plethora of recipes in cookbooks and on websites that
address all these various diets, including many that combine the
diets, such as [kosher-veg] and [cornucopia]. Stores such as Whole
Foods, with locations in virtually all major U.S. cities, as well as
in the U.K., typically handle this in an exceptional manner, as well,
as they often have a salad bar section that consists of very plain
and clearly labeled foods. Most Whole Foods stores also have lists
of specific foods in the store that are safe for a variety of special
diets. Many airlines that provide special meals typically use the
same basic meal to accommodate all special diets, in many cases just
substituting an alternative protein such as the ubiquitous portobello
mushroom for the meat to accommodate a vegetarian/vegan diet. Also,
many restaurants do have a subset of their menu that can typically
accommodate special diets and in many cases the menus either label
the items as such or include a note indicating that dishes can be
prepared to accommodate dietary restrictions.
The following summarizes some basic foods that can accommodate the
majority of special diets that the venue coordinator and food service
staff should be able to accommodate with little pre-planning since
they are the foods that provide the basis for most healthy diets. In
addition, almost all of these items require very little preparation,
thus the potential for cross-contamination is fairly low by observing
the basics of a clean prep area and clean utensils, etc. Also, many
of these items can be delivered by the food service distributors
ready for serving (e.g., salads and even some meats). Virtually all
the foods can be served cold, as most folks find a cold meal
acceptable for breakfast and lunch since dinners at IETF meetings
tend to be larger, hot meals:
o A variety of fresh fruits available at breakfast, lunch and for
breaks, when cookies, etc. are served. The fruit must be kept
separate from the cookies, etc. to avoid cross-contamination.
o A variety of fresh vegetables, either served raw or steamed and
served plain, available at lunch either on a buffet or on the
menu.
o At least two greens (without preservatives) for a salad base
available at lunch and dinner - e.g., Romaine and spinach - served
separately as some folks cannot tolerate the oxalates in fresh
spinach.
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o Lean proteins such as beans, steamed fish and steamed, grilled or
deli meats such as chicken or beef, with at least one kosher
option and ensuring that the meats are unseasoned and without
fillers. Note, that the meats can be served cold, thus prepared
the night before and actually this may be very economical for the
food service establishment where fresh foods are typically more
desireable - e.g., fish spoils most quickly, thus cooking what's
left from the dinner the night before is economical and efficient.
For some folks, these foods are eaten for both breakfast and
lunch.
o Also, to accommodate folks that can handle various spices and
seasonings with their food, a range of condiments such as the
basic salt and pepper, ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise and Tabasco
sauce, as well as minimal salad dressings such as vinegar and oil.
These items are readily available at virtually any food service
establishment.
o Within the food preparation environment for these foods and in the
case of buffets, avoiding dairy altogether is recommended as it is
a common allergen, not eaten by vegans, has special rules for a
Kosher/Halal diet, 50 percent of celiacs cannot tolerate dairy and
the most health conscious of people typically recognize that cow's
milk, pastuerized in particular, is not a particularly healthy
food.
The following food options would be nice to have available, but may
require some pre-planning depending upon the venue, but in general
can be purchased/prepared ahead of time, thus should not be
particularly difficult to support:
o Alternative grains such as Quinoa - can be served as a hot
breakfast cereal or served as a side dish as an alternative to
rice or cracked wheat salad (Tabbouleh) - the latter could be made
using leftovers from breakfast. In the case of breakfast, side
options such as maple syrup and dried fruits like raisins can be
used to sweeten (in the same manner as these items are served with
oatmeal).
o Rice crackers as an alternative to wheat based grain products.
o Hummus as a protein alternative for breakfast and lunch. Hummus
keeps quite well, thus the food service staff would only need to
prepare a large enough batch to last the week.
o Sprouted beans as a salad/protein alternative for breakfast and
lunch.
o Soups that would accommodate all diets such as non-dairy Squash or
vegan lentil soup. As with the meats, this soup could be made
with leftovers served from the previous evening.
o Nuts and seeds (e.g., pumpkin, sunflower, etc.), including nut
butters, as alternative protein sources for folks. These are
suitable for all meals and snacks.
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o Snack bars as an alternative to the cookie option at breaks.
There is a wide range of healthy snack bars available, with many
being either free of all allergens, vegan and kosher or at least
accommodating 2 of the 3 main restrictions. For example, bars
with honey are not vegan, but may be suitable for all the other
special diets. Many of the manufacturers of these snack bars will
provide a certain number to non-profit organizations for their
events for marketing and as a public service.
10. Security Considerations
This document neither defines nor extends any Internet protocol, thus
there are no particular security considerations. One could consider
the information as to which participant requires a special diet to
require some level of privacy, but in general, this isn't considered
particularly private for most folks. As noted in Section 8, one can
never assume that the food offerings are safe and the individual
should always confirm such.
11. IANA Considerations
This document requires no IANA registrations.
12. Acknowledgements
The authors appreciate the feedback from the individuals who
considered the discussion on the IETF-72 attendee list to be
constructive and provided good input. In addition, we also
appreciate the feedback from folks that considered this topic to be
only of concern for a small subset of participants and an onerous
task and expectation for consideration by both meeting planners and
the meeting venue. Feedback from these folks provided the motivation
for this document.
The author appreciates the support from Dan Wing in setting up the
ietf-food mailing list. The list has been very helpful in
identifying restaurants, markets, etc. and allowing folks with
similar food interests to meet and dine together at recent meetings.
The author appreciates the comments and feedback from Dan Romascanu,
Teemu Huovila, Ran Atkinson, Fred Baker, SM, Joel Jaegli, John
Klensin and Melinda Shore. This document was provided to Ole
Jacobsson (as an IAOC member) as input to the meeting hosts (Kaori
Maeda and Akira Kato) for planning purposes for IETF-76 in Hiroshima.
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13. Informative References
[RFC6722] Hoffman, P., "Publishing the "Tao of the IETF" as a Web
Page", RFC 6722, August 2012.
[RFC6640] George, W., "IETF Meeting Attendees' Frequently Asked
(Travel) Questions", RFC 6640, June 2012.
[NRA] Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network, "Welcoming Guests
with Food Allergies", 2008.
[kosher-veg]
Marks, G., "Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of
Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the
World", November 2004.
[cornucopia]
Heffernan, E., "Cornucopia at Home", October 2008.
[GFgourmet]
Hagman, B., "The Gluten-free Gourmet Cooks Fast and
Healthy", June 2000.
Author's Address
Mary Barnes
Polycom
TX
US
Email: mary.ietf.barnes@gmail.com
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