"He eats meat, but can't eat any processed meat."

[Flangelica]

If someone said this to you when you asked about dietary requirements for a child, would you think they were massively w*nky/snobby, or is it socially acceptable and fine?

It will be farmed vs wild salmon that's the issue. Farmed salmon are definitely exposed to hormones and chemicals that wild salmon won't be.

You can get wild salmon at supermarkets.

Just serve a veggie meal.

It is possible there are reasons other than just disliking processed foods.
I have a histamine intolerance so i cant eat any aged or processed meats, it has to be fresh.
Sorry if anyone else has mentioned this, i've only read the ops posts.

Fresh minced meat isn't processed meat. I think sausages, ham, bacon, salamis and shop bought burgers are.

I’d just stick a pizza in 😂🙈

I think the problem with the UK is that there are a lot of extra ingredients and ...
That’s the problem. I don’t buy any processed food, not even preminced meat definitely not pizza etc. I am allergic to champagne but I prefer whiskey so it doesn’t bother me. There is a problem with certain wines also.

My GD cannot eat nuts including oil, lentils and peas, we both have to carry anti allergic pens

For your son just simplify matters well before a visit by saying he is allergic.

Florin supermarkets buy cheaper farmed fish which may be fed to grow faster.

“That is not an allergy.

That is like going round someone's for tea and declaring your child can only eat organic vegetables or only drink mineral water. That's fine but buy your own dinner!”

^Completely agree with this

I have this with certain mature cheeses which are high in histamine. It's tricky as I love cheese!

I would think wow that parent really cares about her child’s nutrition! YABU

I wouldn’t care …just do something veggie.

I get crippling migraines from eating processed meats (plus other things) for this reason. It’s not being fussy, it’s staying healthy

when I was little I couldn’t eat e-numbers, colouring or preservatives. They gave me really bad eczema and I would be up all night ripping my skin off and drawing blood. It affected my mood and my mother would have to deal with it all. So she used to specifically request from friends to not give me anything with that in it. That meant statements like ‘she can eat proper dairy ice cream, but not walls ice cream etc’.
im sure people thought my mother was really pretentious and wanky and I remember them not always abiding because they ‘felt sorry for me’. At the time I was all for it… I loved Neopolitan ice cream! But she was just looking out for me and people should have respected that. Had they had to tape mittens to their child’s hands just to wake hours later to find she had scratched through them and her nails were dripping with blood from tearing her skin off….. they might have understood a bit more.

That's excessive 'caring what her child eats'. She can't let go for one play date. She is days away from sending him to a party with a packed lunch lest he inadvertently eats some wotsits. She needs to understand how to read scientific data or at least a publication that explains it properly for her. Fine at home, not fine when a guest at someone's house imo, poor manners.

If it had been an allergy the parent would have said.

" He doesn't eat processed meat - he has an allergy "

He did not. 😬 Sorry don't buy the allergy.

Different if you've got an allergy or intolerance I think. Surely your mum would have quantified her request by explaining that you had an allergy to tartrazine or whatever.

Yes Octomore, cheese too. I can eat fresh cheese, but not anything 'matured' It's a pain!

I can't eat processed meat as I've had bowel cancer and been told to avoid processed meat as it can act as a trigger. Obviously it won't affect everyone, hopefully. The child may have medical issues or the parents may simply be cautious.

It's quite frightening isn't it, how people just assume they know better than the parents.

I hope your eczema has calmed down now. Cera Ve is absolutely fantastic, I wholeheartedly recommend their whole range (and often do to patients with dry/dehydrated skin). It's not an expensive range and was developed with dermatologists. It is also recommended by the eczema association.

It's quite frightening isn't it, how people just assume they know better than the parents.

No one thinks they know better than the parents. If the child has any sort of allergy the parent is being extremely vague and laissez faire , to not point it out clearly.

"they don't eat processed meat" is VERY unclear. And risky.

No one doesn't believe in allergies.

For that alone the parent is 🙄.

Perhaps parent might think that the child's medical history is confidential and they feel that saying "please don't feed Fred any processed meat" is good enough.

And it should be! As other posters have pointed out, its not hard to roast a chicken or throw some chops or similar in the air fryer.

I would think it was wanky but wouldn’t massively bother me. Would just do veggie food or maybe chicken.

Oh give over. What allergy involves ‘processed meat’?! if such an thing existed it would apply to veggie nuggets.

They are just being a bit precious. It’s not a big deal.

My 14 years old boy doesn't like eating sausages and bacon. He read somewhere that was bad for health and it stuck with him. He doesn't touch coffee either. Only wish he was the same about sugar and salt 😁

Anyone with a real medical dietary restrictions knows that saying “no processed meat” is actually quite vague and unclear. It also doesn’t detail cross-contamination risk.

keeping medical information confidential is a privilege that people with allergies and intolerances don’t get. The only way to stay safe is to disclose enough information for people to help you stay safe.

people who declare restrictions without specifying that it is a preference and not a medical restriction make it harder for people who need real precautions taken because it induces request fatigue. I often have to tell restaurants about my allergies, but I make sure to tell them exactly what level of precaution they require because I don’t want the kitchen overburdened for no reason. I don’t want to be the reason someone rolls their eyes when a request comes in that could prove fatal.

So if you just don’t like a food or you are vegan or keep kosher, or don’t want food with nitrates, just be honest that you have a dietary preference. People are very accommodating of almost any request because they want to be good hosts.

and they feel that saying "please don't feed Fred any processed meat" is good enough.

Well they'd be pretty foolish to take this tack as this thread demonstrates there is no consensus on what processed meat actually means.