Dear Forum Members, I wondered if anyone has any advice or templates to share with me.  We have two staff members with a nut allergy in our office and Ive not come across a RA or template or allergens, any advice would be sincerely appreciated.

Like Kate says this risk assessment is quite simple and you might as well start with blank piece of paper (personally I think ALL risk assessments  should start with a blank sheet of paper cos then you think about what you writing down as opposed to  just ticking boxes)

5 steps

1. Hazards-all nuts? Some nuts? How sensitive will a whiff of a nut set them off  or do they have to actually eat them?
2. Who’s at risk
3. Evaluate  the risk-depends on the answers to 1
4. Note the findings and in particular  your controls. These could as simply as making sure the people with the allergy don’t eat anything with nuts in it to ban anything with nuts in the workplace
5. Review-people’s  sensitivity changes, typically becoming more sensitive.   

Not sure where this office is. In the UK a serious/life-threatening allergy also qualifies as a disability under the Equalities Act so consider “reasonable adjustments” as well as risk controls.

 If the person has an EpiPen for use for anaphylactic shock, we like to make sure first aiders and colleagues nearby know about it and how to use it. The individual with the allergy is the best person to brief people on this and the nature of their allergy (if it’s the kind of work environment they’re comfortable to do so).

 The Food Standards Agency also has useful and simple advice on food safety for social or charity events if you have those at work.