A 10-Year-Old Changed How Millions of Californians Eat Out

When Addie Lao sits down at a restaurant, she’s not just picking a meal—she’s navigating a minefield. Peanuts, sesame, tree nuts, shellfish, wheat, soy, milk, eggs, fish. Any one of them could land her in an ambulance instead of sending her home satisfied. So for years, she and her mother, Robyn Lao, did what millions of families with food allergies do: they asked servers who didn’t know, they called kitchens that couldn’t answer, and they left more nervous than when they arrived.

Starting July 1, that changes—and it’s because a 10-year-old decided California needed to do better.

Senate Bill 68, known as the Allergen Disclosure for Dinner Experiences (ADDE) Act, makes California the first state to require chain restaurants with 20 or more locations to label the top nine allergens directly on their menus. No more playing detective. No more“I’m not sure, let me check.”It’s transparency, printed right there, so diners with allergies can make informed choices before they order. The law was championed by Addie herself, who lives with severe food allergies so complex that she drinks alternative milks—horse milk and donkey milk among them—just to find safe options.

For the roughly 3 million Californians with food allergies, this is genuinely significant. Dining out has meant risk. Cross-contamination is real, hidden ingredients are common, and staff knowledge varies wildly.“It’s really hard to eat out safely without knowing what’s in your food,”Robyn Lao explained, pointing to dishes like dumplings where sesame oil is often the default. The back-and-forth uncertainty, the doubt, the fear—it shrinks with this law.

Restaurants benefit too. Lucy Logan, co-founder of Everybite, a foodservice technology company partnered with the California Restaurant Association, notes that allergen transparency opens new markets:“You’re opening up more of a market for those guests that otherwise cannot and will not buy from you or go and visit one of your locations.”It’s not just the right thing to do—it’s good business.

Of course, Addie and Robyn aren’t stopping here. They hope one day all restaurants, not just chains, will be required to disclose allergens. For now, though, July 1 marks a turning point—the moment when one young Sacramentan’s lived experience became state law, and thousands of families got a little more freedom to dine without paralyzing fear.