For Katrina Basch, an undeclared freshman, a trip to the Dog Pound Deli proved dangerous when she consumed a cookie.

Basch is severely allergic to nuts and within minutes of eating a cookie was rushed to Kishwaukee Community Hospital.

“All it took was one bite and I knew something was not right,” Basch said. “It went from itchy palms to a runny nose, to a tight throat and watering eyes. By the time I got a hold of my father on the telephone, I could not even speak.”

After writing about her experience for an English class, Basch decided to submit her paper to Douglas dining.

“Walking into the dining halls every day and eating the food while not knowing what the food contains is like gambling with my life,” Basch said.

For the estimated 11 million Americans with food allergies, according to foodallergy.org, it is necessary to know each and every ingredient involved in the making of their meal. Lack of this knowledge has proved fatal.

According to Ralph Chaplin, director of residential dining, NIU Dining is not yet ready to list the ingredients of its selections.

“In terms of listing the ingredients, we are right now at the spot where we post main entrees with nutritional information, but we are not yet ready to post ingredients for those dishes,” Chaplin said.

Ruth Cain, the Lincoln and Douglas dining manager, expressed her concern about the amount of time posting all the ingredients in the dishes served would take.

“Mainly there are too many items to post when you’re talking about every recipe and everything we serve; you’re really hard pressed to put all that on the Internet,” Cain said.

Cain, however, continued to say that if an individual student was concerned about a dish, she would be willing to look up the ingredients.

“It’s a really big project to do,” Cain said.

Basch has an alternative time- and money-saving idea. Rather than listing all the ingredients, she has created a simple system that would alert people of common food allergens.

“All the ingredients do not even need to be listed,” Basch said. “On the labels that briefly identify the dishes they could print, ‘This dish contains a common food allergen, please ask the server for more information.'”

Cain said she has been working with management on the issue and hopes to work with Basch and NIU’s food specialist.

“The best thing they can do if they’re not sure [what is in the food] is to ask to speak with a manager,” Cain said.