Nut free school, is "may contain nuts" ok?

[icepackquestion]

My daughters primary school is a nut free school. Can I put something in her lunch that doesn't contain nuts but says "may contain nuts" ?

@SoapboxFox

Would you eat something that said 'may contain poison'?

Presumably the OP's child is not the one with a nut allergy or this would be a very odd question to ask. I'm sure she isn't suggesting that her child force feeds the child with the allergy.

Some of these comments are ridiculous!

From a person who had a nut allergy, i always ate things that said may contain!! If not, I'd not have eaten much!
I remember lemonade saying it once.

@CatNamedEaster

The thing is, is might not be fine in your school so you need to check with them and preferably get them to issue clear guidance. Is "May contain" acceptable? Is "made in a factory..." acceptable? Is "not suitable due to production methods" acceptable? They need to make sure there's no room for umming and arrring otherwise they are going to have 100's of parents wondering the same as you. The risk is that some of them will think 'oh this will be ok because it only says XXX on the pack' when actually it might not be ok for your school.

It might not be a generic policy but could be in place due to a pupil with severe allergies and you don't know if they might be affected by airborne particles rather than direct contact.

I can guarantee that in any "but free school" staff and students are bringing and consuming products with nuts in or traces of nuts or even "may contain traces".

It's impossible to police or out into practice. Even with everyone having best intentions.

I think “may contain nuts” is fine. Like previous posters have said the allergic child isn’t going to eat it. Tbh I think if the child was that sensitive to nuts to rule out any kids in the school eating “may contain nuts” food then the school would have made a more specific issue out of it earlier than now and also the fact that we ve reached June and and the child is ok would also indicate that they are not in that very small minority of people who can’t be in a room with others eating “may contain but” food. Interestingly my kids primary schools were “nut free” but once in secondary the schools largely seemed to expect the allergic child to just avoid any potential food and kids were allowed to eat what they wanted.

My child has a very dangerous nut allergy.

It's fine, what I would appreciate is that you made your child aware of allergies and of safe behaviours with them, i.e. that he knew to check ingredients before sharing food or touching equipment, wash hands etc., much more feasible and important.

Thanks for asking and showing concern!

Check with school. When my DC were at nursery they had a no nut policy which included the “may contain nuts” items. In fact, the one time I inadvertently sent my DC in with a snack they’d changed the label on to “may contain nuts” (and I hadn’t noticed), it got sent home uneaten and I was firmly told to keep checking labels on everything, even foods that were previously ok.

My son has a peanut allergy. I would not be upset if someone ate a food which was ‘May contains nuts/peanuts’ next to him as he knows not to share food. His childminder has items like this in the house. We have ‘May contains’ items in the house but he doesn’t eat them. We would never have actual peanuts/items it’s actual peanuts in the the house and neither would his childminder. I think you’re fine to pick the item. Remind DC not to share food round due to people’s allergies.

Some great advice and suggestions on here. Thanks all

I thought the anaphylaxis charities were no longer advising schools to declare themselves “nut-free”, as their emphasis is now on supporting a child to learn how to manage their allergies in a way that mirrors real life?

As a pp said, in secondary school in particular, students will bring in all sorts of foods that may have traces of nuts in.

If a child is led to believe they don’t need to take any precautions because the school has declared itself “nut-free”, they could be lulled into a false sense of security about how vigilant they should be.

Every item of food that isn't carefully produced in a totally nut-free environment with every ingredient sourced in an extra-careful way to ensure no accidental traces of nut may contain nut traces. Such foods are more expensive because all the extra work that goes into ensuring that the foodchain is nut-freetakes a lot of effort.

It would be totally unreasonable for a school to expect all the hundreds of families who send their kids to the school to pay the additional costs of ensuring all the food taken from home is actually nut free so it must be the case that most items brought from home may contain traces of nut.

My nut allergic child eats “may contain” foods. He’s been trained from infancy to never share someone else’s food. His school turned nut free a few years before he left and the only incidents involved a girl who sat at a special table with her friends who were only allowed nut free food. She had one “blue light” incident and two minor ones because she was just a kid who had been told all food at that table was safe. It wasn’t. I don’t agree with nut free policies. It just leads to kids thinking they are safe when they aren’t. All the talk of dying and poison just makes people think our kids are freaks who shouldn’t be allowed to mix with normals. I despise it.

That’s interesting Warmduscher, I always wondered about this approach. My kids were at a nut free school - incidentally I once saw the mum of the allergic child read the ingredients & give a ‘may contain nuts’ snack bar to the allergic child, so in our school it would have been absolutely fine for another child to eat one - but the secondary school the kids go on to is huge & not nut free at all.

@ipswichwitch

Check with school. When my DC were at nursery they had a no nut policy which included the “may contain nuts” items. In fact, the one time I inadvertently sent my DC in with a snack they’d changed the label on to “may contain nuts” (and I hadn’t noticed), it got sent home uneaten and I was firmly told to keep checking labels on everything, even foods that were previously ok.

I'd have been tempted to remove things from packaging in that case...

I once joked to the v senior allergy consultant that I hadn't been able to give my dd her usual peanut butter sandwich for a snack while we were waiting, as it didn't seem right in an allergy clinic. He replied 'why in earth not, she's eating it, not smearing it on the chairs!' In my experience, it's mostly people who don't know about allergies who promote nut bans in schools - even the anaphylaxis campaign recommends against it!

@SoapboxFox

Would you eat something that said 'may contain poison'?

What a ridiculous statement 🙄

And how many people know groundnut oil is made from peanuts? Not many. The message for an allergic child is to eat nothing unless they know it's safe. They cannot assume food is safe just because they are in a supposedly nut free school!

There’s no legal requirement to write “may contain [allergen]” on a label - in reality, they are no more of a risk than anything that doesn’t say it.

I have a nut allergy and have to eat things that say “may contain nuts” as almost everything does.

no

@Bluebird76

And how many people know groundnut oil is made from peanuts? Not many. The message for an allergic child is to eat nothing unless they know it's safe. They cannot assume food is safe just because they are in a supposedly nut free school!

But as long as nut oil is refined then it doesn’t contain the allergen. www.anaphylaxis.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Peanut-Oil-2017.pdf

I've been so conditioned that school and extra curricular clubs have been quite strict on no nut policies although some special parents used to insist on bringing their child nutella that I was totally amazed when DD went to secondary school and brought home a recipe for food tech which contained several types of nuts!

That's interesting SinkGirl! Though my point still stands, which is that given that nuts can hide in lots of things, a parent could easily send something with nuts in without even realising it - a nut free school is not really a nut free school, and gives a false sense of reassurance. Also, as a parent of a child with egg and dairy allergy, nobody ever suggests egg- and dairy-free schools, even though DD has reacted to traces or smears of it on door handles etc.

Dd's school is nut free, it's her best friend who has the allergy, the school won't accept 'may contain nuts' even though the girl will eat those foods outside school.

@Bluebird76

That's interesting SinkGirl! Though my point still stands, which is that given that nuts can hide in lots of things, a parent could easily send something with nuts in without even realising it - a nut free school is not really a nut free school, and gives a false sense of reassurance. Also, as a parent of a child with egg and dairy allergy, nobody ever suggests egg- and dairy-free schools, even though DD has reacted to traces or smears of it on door handles etc.

Yes I totally agree - I’m anaphylactic to nuts and sesame, one twin to egg, and both react horribly to dairy. It’s tough. They’ve had a few dairy reactions at school despite everyone’s best efforts.

@Bluebird76

That's interesting SinkGirl! Though my point still stands, which is that given that nuts can hide in lots of things, a parent could easily send something with nuts in without even realising it - a nut free school is not really a nut free school, and gives a false sense of reassurance. Also, as a parent of a child with egg and dairy allergy, nobody ever suggests egg- and dairy-free schools, even though DD has reacted to traces or smears of it on door handles etc.

This why the anaphylaxis campaign do no do not advise nut free schools. It breeds complacency and there are many other allergies just as serious but just banning nuts leads to the false impression that only nuts are serious. My ds is allergic to treenuts and seeds. Humous is far worse to my ds than peanut butter, which he can eat no problem , yet you very rarely hear of humous being banned.

Most things say “may contain nuts” nowadays. These products don’t contain nuts, but may have been produced in a factory that uses nuts in other products. As long as the child allergic to nuts isn’t eating the food, then they will be fine. They won’t have an airborne reaction from something that doesn’t contain actual nuts.

kidshealth.org/en/parents/nut-peanut-allergy.html