The present generation of Bruins is much more allergic to peanuts and tree nuts than its predecessors.

Self-reported peanut or tree nut allergies among children in the United States saw a threefold increase from 1997 to 2008 – when most current undergraduates, born between 2003 and 2007, were toddlers or elementary-aged.

The prevalence of celiac disease, a condition that causes a damaging immune reaction to gluten, is also on the rise globally.

Despite these increasing allergy and hypersensitivity statistics, UCLA Dining has yet to crack down on its incessant allergen mislabeling.

Eateries on the Hill must provide accurate and consistent dietary information across all interfaces and make Bruins with allergies aware of resources available to improve the safety of their dining experience.

UCLA Dining recommends that students with allergies review nutritional information on its website. Common allergens and dietary restrictions are also listed under dishes’ names on screens and paper labels across eateries on the Hill.

But these labels are not to be trusted. A zucchini chocolate bar served in Bruin Plate, for example, is labeled on the dining website and the screen inside the restaurant as containing peanuts, tree nuts and sesame. The paper tag misses all three of these allergens.

People living with allergies and other dietary needs must constantly be on the lookout to avoid a reaction. When they are unable to cook for themselves, they must count on the hands that feed them.

Sammi Cloughesy, a second-year cognitive science student who has celiac disease, said she suffered several immune responses from dining hall food when she lived on the Hill. Cloughesy experienced these reactions despite the diligent precautions she takes for each meal.

These steps range from carefully reading ingredient information to speaking directly with a chef, she added.

When students are left to fend for themselves in a sea of cross contamination, accidents are bound to happen.

“You have to eat every day,” Cloughesy said. “This is three meals a day, every day, and you have all other parts of your life to think about.”

Gluten-free pantries in De Neve Residential Restaurant and B Plate offer prepackaged and frozen options to students with approval from the Center for Accessible Education. Yet securing this accommodation is no simple feat. Those who make it to the other side are subject to strict rules intended to mitigate contamination.

“I was told a couple times that I wasn’t supposed to leave (the pantry) if I had food in there, but I thought that was ridiculous,” Cloughesy said. “You’re supposed to sit isolated in this little closet.”

The social ramifications of a dining system that overlooks the needs of food-sensitive students go beyond the locked doors of the gluten-free pantry.

Summer Wang, a second-year microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics and statistics and data science student, cannot have peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, shellfish or dairy.

Wang said she has been deterred from eating at sit-down dining halls – important social spots on the Hill. Frequent inconsistencies between the allergens listed on the UCLA Dining website and those listed on the in-house signs make these spaces too risky.

“I’d ask the chef – I’d be like, ‘Hey, so is there actually this (an allergen) in this food?’ And he’d be like, ‘No, I just made it,'” Wang said. “So I could actually eat it, but the signage is definitely misleading.”

When labels include allergens that are not actually present, it is up to students with dietary restrictions to gamble their fate.

Santo Quintero, a first-year mechanical engineering student who is allergic to peanuts, said dishes in dining halls he’d previously eaten with no issue sometimes had new labels that caused him to second-guess if they were still safe.

“The next time I went to Epic (Epicuria at Covel), I saw the chocolate chip cookies there again, and I wanted to eat them,” Quintero said. “But then I read the label, and the label said that they had nuts in them, so then this time I stayed away from them.”

Quintero said he eventually ate the cookies – which were still labeled as containing nuts – at a later date without issue.

Despite these upsetting anecdotes, UCLA Housing and Dining seems indifferent to the daily struggle of being a student with dietary restrictions. It points to steps these students can take to enhance their safety as opposed to steps the university can take.

“We encourage students to be proactive by consulting dining room staff for assistance and avoiding sole reliance on signage in dining halls, particularly in self-serve environments where cross-contamination may occur and affect students with food allergies,” UCLA Housing and Dining said in an emailed statement. “The safety and well-being of all Bruins remain our highest priority.”

It’s hard to feel like a priority in a dining hall when, despite using the same nonrefundable meal swipe as everyone else, you’re forced to go hungry.

After her recent meal plan downgrade to the 14 Premier plan, Wang said she cannot waste a dining hall swipe on a less-than-filling meal.

If the university considered simple, procedural changes that keep students with dietary restrictions in mind, enjoying a dining hall meal wouldn’t be such a puzzle.

Wang noted that these steps could include a more intentional configuration of where different dishes are located in dining halls to avoid unnecessary cross contamination.

It’s crucial that our university takes more rigorous measures to protect the safety of students with different dining needs. These must include checking the consistency of allergen labels, providing more comprehensive training to dining staff regarding students with dietary restrictions and more prominently advertising accessibility resources, namely the registered dietician on campus, whom students can consult for dining advice.

As the prevalence of allergies and celiac disease continues to rise, UCLA cannot keep up its habit of ignoring Bruins’ dietary needs.

Whether our university likes it or not, it has a responsibility to feed us. The longer it lags in accepting this responsibility, the more students will get hurt.