A step forward on my pursuit of egglessness

A little over a week ago we had lunch with D's family over at our local pub.  It's a fun, family owned establishment... where the wait staff never turns over, and by about the third visit they know you by name.   I love the place for it's hard cider and atmosphere, but it's one of those places that I never could get a clear answer on about their bread.  The sandwich bread has ingredients... and for the first few years I lived here, I made do with burgers served on toasted rye instead of hamburger buns (until I discovered their carne asada tacos, which are lighter on my tummy than a big ol' burger anyway) Their bakery breads, however, come in unlabeled clear wrappers.

Having just recently spoken with the Department of Agriculture and Department of Health, I thought I would try my luck on talking with the management about their lack of ingredient information.  I had never realized this, but it turns out that the super friendly guy who always wears a baseball hat and scurries around behind the bar fulfilling orders is actually the owner... so my inquiry went straight to the top, and I received more information than I had anticipated I might.

The owner was incredibly nice and receptive to my questions.  I talked to him about my allergies and the roadblocks I come across in restaurants (not just his... but a majority of places in the area) He had already started to make a note to himself to get ingredient information for future reference, but also pondered why the bakery wasn't giving it out to begin with.  Maybe because it is commercial sales instead of retail?  I'd had the same question in the past, but according to the DoA, the ingredient information has to be labeled or supplied regardless of who the food is being sold to, and in what manner.  I thought perhaps the ingredients were on the boxes of bread, as opposed to being individually labeled, and perhaps the boxes were always tossed once the supplies were stocked in the kitchen.  That had always been my biggest question - and I finally received an answer.

The bakery delivers bread on flats - not in boxes.  The truck pulls up and there are pallets of bread, packaged in clear wrappers... the pallets go straight off the truck into the kitchen.  No boxes, no place to stamp ingredients.  His guess is that the bakery probably wants to save on costs by not labeling the bags they sell the bread in. 

Technically it's not a requirement to label every bag, so it's not specifically illegal to package it that way.  However, the bakery needs to provide the ingredient information in some manner.  As this is a regulation that appears to be unenforced, it appears that this is probably something the bakery doesn't bother to follow through with unless asked. 

So it comes down to doing this one restaurant at a time.