The owner of a burger restaurant who tells his staff to turn away customers with food allergies has defended his policy as 'extremely fair'.

Jeff Taylor, who owns Bun X, which operates out of two pubs in Norwich, received a wave of criticism and a handful of one-star reviews after refusing to serve customers with food allergies, even if they were willing to take the risk.

He said that Bun X is unable to cater for anyone with a gluten, nut, soya or sesame allergy and asks customers to inform staff about allergies in advance of their booking.

Last year, the restaurant switched booking providers so that it could list its allergy policy in terms and conditions that customers have to accept before booking. 

'We ordered food and then were asked if we had any allergies. They then said we couldn't be served because one of us has a nut allergy. We had been in May and all was fine,' one customer wrote about his family's visit to the restaurant on Google reviews.

However, Mr Taylor has addressed the bad reviews, telling BBC Radio Norfolk that 'we are not being pedantic, we are being extremely fair'.

Due to the size of the kitchen, he said the business had to make 'tricky decisions' after 'due diligence concluded that there is no safe way to 100% eradicate cross contamination'.

Mr Taylor says the buns are handmade in a bakery that handles nuts and the sesame seeds on the buns 'cover the entire kitchen'. The kitchen also uses vegetable oil made from soya beans.

The Food Standards Agency advised those with allergies to be upfront with restaurants they are eating it ensure it is able to make the changes to suit any dietary needs.

In the UK, restaurants must provide clear information about the 14 major allergens in their food and protect customers from cross-contamination. 

Mr Taylor said he wanted to raise awareness over how businesses could lose everything in the event of a customer food allergy attack.

'I think there's a lot of confusion over whose responsibility and liability from a legal standpoint it is,' he told the Times. 'And even some allergy sufferers don't understand the consequences if things do go wrong.'

Bun X has received several negative reviews on social media, TripAdvisor and Google,  since the new police was brought it, Mr Taylor says. 

One person wrote: 'If you have a food allergy and you want to eat there, don't bother, they won't serve you. Was felt like I had a disease of something.'

Another person with a nut allergy said they were 'flat out refused service' despite accepting the risk, and that business's stance is 'not an acceptable one'.

Another family wrote online that when alerting the restaurant that one of the party had an allergy, they were refused service.   

In response to the Google review about the family that was asked to leave because of a nut allergy, Mr Taylor replied: 'You are publicly admitting that we care for your daughter's welfare! Before you even book you are requested to read and sign terms and conditions … They're then resent at point of confirmation!

'We didn't ask about allergies as you were booking — you'd signed the [terms and conditions].

'However, you are so concerned that your daughter is allergic to nuts that YOU mention it to us! So your review should read, 'Gutted I chanced it and dragged my family out for dinner. Luckily for us the compassionate pros at Bun X are on the ball and protected my daughter!''