To wonder what is dangerous about my child’s lunch

Yes, I was about to post that and ask why they couldn't have said what the item was instead of "Your child's lunch contains a prohibited item" leading you to guess what the hell it's supposed to be.

🤣

You imagine wrong...

These rules are nuts. Or may contain nuts.

I find it far more inconsiderate that they offered 2 beef options and one crap vegetarian one. I'd feed that back to the school. I imagine there aren't many pupils of the same religious background?

appreciate I'm being be pedantic answering your question- just because i like a quick show off -Babybel is a brand of small cheese produced by Le Groupe Bel founded by Jules Bel son officially i think we can call him the Big Bel

can I ask what is wrong with rapeseed oil?

I think your lunch was fine. I have one very fussy DD and one who'll eat anything. If I don't give the fussy one foods she will eat she just won't eat.

I am sympathetic to people with allergies but if we excluded everything that one person was allergic to you would end up with virtually no possible options.

babybel -> gruyere snobbery is hilarious :D

send stinking bishop with crackers darling...and purple organic carrots with your humous, it will be a hoot.

The OP has said they've replied and it's the frube due to milk allergies

Could be the pepperami as people have allergies to many spices.

Lots of clueless posts from people not understanding the difference between processed foods and UPF on this thread, which is fine. It’s a newish concept and there’s a lot to learn. But there is a tangible difference. It’s not just snobbery or nonsense.

Yes, all bread and cheese is processed food. That’s fine and not unhealthy.

Some bread and cheese is ultra-processed food. Bread baked fresh at Sainsburys bakery is simply processed. Sainsbury’s “sliced white bread” on the shelf, however, contains various emulsifiers and rapeseed oil, and is ultra-processed.

To answer the quoted question Babybel vs Gruyere. Actually neither are UPF. Gruyere has one ingredient - milk. Babybel actually has only a few ingredients - Cheese, salt, lactic ferments, rennet. Babybel is just edam. Any anti-babybel sentiment is just snobbery.

Frubes vs natural yog is probably a better example. Natural yoghurt is just a couple of ingredients - milk, and bacterial cultures. Frubes contain guar gum and “flavouring” - plus stabilisers, regulators and thickeners. It is an UPF.

The science is still emerging, but Ultra Processed Foods have been shown to have an adverse effect on gut health, as well as strong links to diabetes, cancer, heart disease, depression, obesity and low life expectancy.

The main ultra-processed ingredients you want to look out for are emulsifiers, flavourings and stabilisers, things like malted barley extract (in most cereals), hydrogenated oils and seed oils, and “natural flavourings”. Any extra ingredients that have been added to aid in industrial food processing, for ease of shaping, flavouring, etc, and for cheapness.

The OpenFoodFacts app is great for checking if something is a UPF.

Asda did a HUGE ‘bel’ at Christmas time!

Ah yes, the frube makes sense now. My son has a diary allergy (not a serious one, just makes him very poorly/sick/the runs/rash etc) & he’s come home splattered when someone behind him opened a drive a bit too enthusiastically. He ended up with a rash on his neck from it where it had gotten on his skin. The school really should have made a school wide notice about it though. We haven’t at our school as it’s not a big deal unless my son eats it but if it’s something serious then they shouldn’t just be raising it individually

Good job you’re not eating it then.

The vaugeness of the note and lack of clarity about the policy is daft, unhelpful and potentially dangerous as such a vague message is likely to be ignored.

Specifically banning a frube because of the risk of uncontrolled splatter compared to similar products is sensible... but only if all parents are made aware of that and the reason for it.

Generally banning allergens from common food groups is unmanagable. I say this as a parent whose child had 3 allergies to common foods that caused facial swelling to the point that he couldn't open his eyes properly for a couple of days.

Exactly the same here! My son doesn't touch anything that's not beige. The same apple has a ride to school and back every day.

This, all these lunch policies are absolute nonsense when they get to high school and can get out of school to buy fizzy drink, instant noodles and packs of cookies for lunch.

gosh, I'd forgotten how bad our primary was about introducing rules, telling no-one, not publishing them, and then laying into us when we broke them. FFS

Yeah I totally get that, but to say ‘healthy eating has gone too far,’ is a stretch! Healthy eating to me is not just consuming healthy food, but having a healthy relationship with it. My kids are allowed to eat anything (except Coke I draw the line there!) but seriously we don’t have banned foods etc. just try to focus on being healthy and never ever mention weight or body shape to them (coming from someone whose mother has had an eating disorder/unhealthy obsession with weight basically my whole life).

Also, @Rumors1 's posts and suggestions are in line with expert recommendations from charities like Allergy UK.

@user09876543 I don't think you've read @Rumors1 's posts - she doesn't advocate for any bans, but for inclusion and sensible mitigation.

I think all this healthy eating as gone too far.
If schools and some parents dont stop and look at what they are doing to children some kids are going to have eating disorders in the future.
Food will become a fear for some.

Off topic but it clearly hasn’t, as the levels of obesity in this country indicate. Not that I am agreeing with those picking apart OP’s lunchbox!

Obesity can be caused by an eating disorder.

Forbidden foods, restricted diets, obsessive parents etc may lead to an adult who, when allowed to choose for themselves, has really mucked up notions of what is a healthy diet and a healthy way to eat.

It shouldn't have an impact on those with no allergies since it doesn't need to. It unfortunately already has an impact on the with allergies since they have the allergy. Your argument is that the nut allergic child has to comply with all allergy rules if in the allergy eating area (which they personally benefit from) and so as a result every other person in the school should also comply with all allergy rules because that's "only fair". It makes no sense at all. It doesn't benefit the nut allergic child if the other children have to comply (even though there is a solution with less impact), you're just asking for them to be restricted because the nut allergic child is restricted in the name of so called "fairness".

Separate rooms does in any event spread information about allergies. These children have allergies and therefore they eat their lunch in the other part of the dining hall/classroom G26 etc because otherwise they could be exposed to something harmful. The children would all know this.

To your other post also responding on the same comment, it is positive discrimination to allow these children to eat in a separate safe environment for them. Just the same as you have argued that its positive discrimination for my sen child to be taken away from their classmates to do some lessons in a different room with other sen children. I could easily argue the opposite and say that my child is being singled out and treated as different when he already has enough difficulty being accepted by the other children and that he should be given support in the normal classroom.

Or if I wanted to be particularly provocative I could argue that they should all go at his pace..

Actually Im realistic and sensible and I understand that my child has to spend his whole life dealing with his particular issues so he needs to get used to this and that it isn't realistic or fair to expect others to be adversely impacted because of his unfortunate situation.

Nobody disputes that children with serious allergies need to be in a safe environment. But there are ways of doing this that are more sensible and pragmatic than expecting every child in the school to comply with a series of allergy requirements.

I travel alot with DS by plane. You are advised to tell the cabin staff upon boarding and they then do a PA announcement asking people to not consume nuts. (DS's allergy is airborne and although he can go about his life and go into shops etc the filtered air on a plane is potentially a problem).

IME cabin staff have been brilliant as well. Last thing they want is someone going into anaphylaxis in the air.

😂😂 my DH does this with apples! I usually end up eating it after it’s been back and forth with him for a week (I don’t make his lunchbox btw)