Food allergies can make make eating out or going to parties difficult, and they can be an isolating experience for the person who has them. Dealing with food allergies entails not only avoiding the food in question, but also any sauces that may contain the item or any surfaces that the item might have touched. Grilling shellfish like shrimp or lobster is fairly common, so if you have a shellfish allergy, you need to check the environment thoroughly and control what people bring into your home. If going out, enlist the help of the party host or restaurant chef to avoid a reaction.
Home Grilling
Step 1
Use your own grill -- don't borrow a neighbor's grill because you don't know what they normally cook on it. Even if they clean it regularly, you don't know if they've gotten all the shellfish or sauce debris off the grill.
Step 2
Talk to the host, if going to someone else's house, about what they plan to have, what they have used on the grill in the past and what guests are bringing. You might have to bring a precooked dish for yourself.
Step 3
Inspect any items such as sauces that others bring to your home when inviting people over for a meal, or don't allow others to bring their own foods and sauces, except for extenuating circumstances like another food allergy. Even the most well-meaning, understanding friend can accidentally overlook an ingredient to which you're allergic, thus unknowingly contaminating your grill.
Restaurants
Step 1
Call restaurants ahead of time and ask about their grilling policy and if they have a separate grill for fish and shellfish. If possible, go to restaurants that don't grill shellfish or use sauces that might have shellfish in them.
Step 2
Ask them about the sauces they use to marinate nonshellfish dishes. If they use clam juice as part of a marinade, for example, it doesn't matter if the meat on the grill isn't shellfish.
Step 3
Sit far enough away from communal and other grills so there's no risk of oil or sauces that have touched shellfish splattering onto your dish. You might decide after speaking with the restaurant to avoid ordering shellfish yourself, but if your tablemates want that hibachi-grilled shrimp, you have to take precautions against any of it accidentally getting into your food, or any of the smoke wafting your way.
