To wonder what is dangerous about my child’s lunch

[NameChangeAK]

I received a message from school today saying my child’s lunch contained a prohibited item and to please review the policy “as there are children with severe allergies and it’s dangerous not to comply”

I don’t usually provide packed lunches - DC has school meals, but they did like todays meal options.

Ive responded and asked what the item was but waiting for a response, but I’m confused - it’s clearly a nut free school but I can’t see anything else anywhere about other banned foods

the packed lunch contained:

• ham sandwich (with butter) on brown bread
• apple
• frube (strawberry flavour)
• carton of own brand apple juice
• Pepperami
• babybel

any ideas what could be the problem or Aibu to think they’ve mistaken the ham as peanut butter or something ridiculous?

RosesAndHellebores

Generic letter because they disapproved of what was in the lunchbox.

Ham - processed
Babybel -processed
Frube - processed
Peppermint- processed
Apple Juice - the small cartons are rarely 100% pressed/squeezed

In the kindest possible way @Hopper123that was a lunchbox jammed with UPFs.

Better choices would have been:
Chicken, tuna or egg sandwich
Fresh fruit - endless choices and combinations
2/3 cubes of gruyere
Small container with natural Greek Yoghurtand a drizzle of honey
Water instead of juice

Oh bore off. 🙄

Maybe they have sent the message to the wrong parent?
I hope you find out what it is.

That's awful that your DC and all the other DC in the school are banned from eating yogurt at lunchtime, just because of one child's intolerance. I'd continue giving my child it, telling them not to 'squirt it' and carrying on as normal tbh. That's ridiculous.

Some children with autism will only eat yogurts. My DN had ARFID and only ate fromage frais yogurts for 2 years (it was heartbreaking but even dieticians couldn't succeed in adding other foods until he was 11. Now he's a strapping 6ft tall adult thank god!)

How is gruyere an UPF? Processed yes but so is cheddar so struggling to see what makes it an UPF.

One hundred percent. I have a weird allergy and can relate!

School needs to learn communication. If they need to send these messages, write down what's the problem. Saves everyone's time.

Also, I'm pro universal free/affordable school dinners. If schools are imposing all these rules on packed lunches, they should just serve lunch.

@boyohboys The only cheese which is not a UPF is Ricotta, Goat's cheese, Feta & Cottage cheese. All the rest are UPF.

Just bloody read the post. How hard is it?

The OP is obviously drip-feeding. This school is actually Hogwarts for Psychic Parents, innit? Otherwise WTF are frubes not PUBLISHED as a prohibited food, together with an explanation of WHY in case similar products come to market?

Do ultra processed foods affect one's ability to read?

Thank Christ I no longer have children of school age, it’s gone fukin crackers! Are crackers allowed by the way? 🤔

No. Just that I haven’t experienced that with DD or her classmates - 90s. Nor when I was growing up.
Obviously not everyone’s experience though.

Glad you got to the bottom of it OP.

A lot of this hoo-ha could have been avoided had the school said "Frubes are not allowed due to their tendency to squirt everywhere, and we have a child with a severe dairy allergy".

The school needs to work on their communication skills.

Double check. Once I got wrong message about Lice. Woman in office made a mistake, I did the treatment found nothing. Next day I confirmed with teacher at drop off that that I did treatment. she looked puzzled then told me it wasn’t my child and said she needed to sort it with office.

Obviously depends on brand, but for example Lidl and Sainsburys brand Gruyere are both Nova scale 3 (processed), and has one ingredient - milk. Thus not a UPF.

pepperami. choking hazard.

The school really need to review how they communicate the rules.
They may have told "many parents" but clearly not all as you didn't have a clue about what they were talking about.
They could have made it clear in the original email what they were referring to as opposed to leaving you guessing.
Even with the update, the rule is still unclear. Is it "no dairy" or "no frubes because they may splatter spray"? Is there a list of banned dairy products or a blanket ban? Because they seemed fine with the butter and Babybel.

RTFT. Frube, serious milk allergy.

My understanding is that all oils apart from extra virgin olive oil (which is machine pressed) are what most people would call ultra processed - they go through hydrogenising, bleaching, refining and deodorising, which are industrial processes.

It’s not that straightforward though. A bit of 100% rapeseed oil in your saucepan for cooking is, on balance, probably fine. It’s an ingredient. But for something like sliced bread, a cereal bar or fish fingers to contain rapeseed oil, it could be an indicator that the food is UPF.

However there is no consensus really on seed oils being UPF or not. Personally I still cook with seed oils sometimes. It’s not an ingredient which overly bothers me. I guess the key is asking yourself “is this a product that needs to have oil in it”.

2/3 cubes of gruyere
Small container with natural Greek Yoghurt and a drizzle of honey

Pissing myself. My kids eat adventurously too, but this is so pretentiousness it's like a sitcom scene. Not to eat it, but to go online upbraiding other mothers because their kids are eating frubes and not gruyere... 😂

@EnglishBluebell there's a difference between processed and UPF. Important not to confuse them.

oh I so agree! I do think you have to watch out for high salt and sugar levels and basic stuff but there doesn't even seem to be consensus on what a UPF is. The silliest one I have seen is anything that contains more than 5 ingredients....so a pizza with flour, yeast cheese tomatoes and extra virgin oil is by definition a UPF and bad for you and a ploughman's lunch is not?

@godmum56 not forgetting that by The Laws Of UPF wine & beer are better than a glass of reconstituted orange juice...

CelesteCunningham I'm so puzzled by the last line of your post at 10.07

"DD came home with two top hats, delighted with herself."

She came home with two of these? 😕

Good god why is everyone on their high horse about UPF????
Technically baby milk is UPF but nobody in their right mind would suggest parents don't use it.

I’ve got a friend who is severely allergic to strawberries