Buffets are always a potential hazard when you have allergies. I'm allergic to all seafood, spinach, kiwi, and sunflower (oil, seeds, Vitamin E extracted from it, etc.). You basically accept the risk when you go to a buffet. Not only do you not know the specific ingredients in anything (I realize that you can ask, but it's still tricky), but you don't know what others do with utensils. Sometimes you just have to skip something that you can't be sure of.
If there is any kind of seafood close to anything that I might be interested in, I may simply skip that section entirely or will consider the type of utensil and if it's likely to be something that could contaminate my food. My allergies are not life-threatening (except possibly the kiwi, but that rarely causes cross-contamination issues) but very, very, very unpleasant, so I don't avoid all buffets but I do take extra care. Only once have I experienced what I believe was cross-contamination from smoked salmon on
DCL (and I should have known better given its proximity to what I was eating, so my own bad judgment). Fortunately, it was minor, and I had only a few hours of discomfort and mild nausea. If I was severely allergic to seafood, I'd definitely avoid buffets, and if it was a predominantly seafood buffet, you wouldn't even get me into the restaurant.
