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?

well but cold pressed ultra virgin rapeseed oil is available.....

@godmum56 yes I think cold pressed rapeseed is fine too from a upf perspective

Especially if the packaging is attractive!! PLAIN PACKAGING FOR UPF! 🪧🤨👎

Yes and if the packaging is brightly coloured with a cartoon character, I believe it actually lowers life expectancy. <nods sagely>

There is an obesity epidemic in the west, any measures to encourage healthy eating are a good thing i'da thought

Presumably a plain packaged (e.g. own brand ultra cheapo) ready meal is therefore safer than an "artisan" one home made in the farm shop with all fresh ingredients from the farm, if the farm shop one has bright shiny packaging. Both would have more than 5 ingredients...

My DC are mid 20s now so at primary school in the 00s. There were no rules but I did send an apple back and forth every day for my own conscience. DS1 survived on white bread and jam sandwiches and a frube.

Seeded bread? We have someone at school with a sesame allergy so not allowed seeded bread/hummus!

If the allergy is serious, why has it not been clearly communicated to all parents? How many innocent Frubes must be sacrificed before they are added to the banned list?

And why does this school communicate in such vague terms? Do they think they're a social media platform?

"You've violated one of our Very Important Rules. We won't tell you which one, but don't do it again."

Sadly there's also an epidemic of financial instability, meaning something that costs £1 a meal per person can be a lot more attractive to someone strapped for cash than a lovely fresh healthy equivalent that costs £10 per person.

Apparently canned vegetables are considered a UPF by some bodies, but they can cost an awful lot less than fresh

how can that be? BBC This morning with Dr Xan van Tulliken reccomends them so they MUST be ok

And the imprecision of the UPF argument frustrates the bejesus out of me.

Obviously we should all (and I'll put my own lardy arse at the top of the list) be eating healthier food, and eating less processed food is a good rule of thumb.

But I've never seen an actual definition of UPF, or WHY any particular foods are harmful and evidence of that harm. As far as I can figure out, huge numbers of ingredients fall under the (vague) UPF umbrella but they can't all act in the same way.

From my understanding:

”Natural flavouring” on an ingredient list usually refers to a lab-created ingredient. They call it “natural flavouring” to make you think oh, it’s probably just grape juice or honey. But the “natural flavouring” wording is dishonest. After all, if it was just honey or fruit juice, it would state that instead. “Natural flavouring” is covering up the fact they are industrially-produced extracts and concentrates.

Seed oils on an ingredients list (such as “rapeseed oil” listed for frozen fish fingers) are highly unlikely to be in an “unmodified state”, and that’s rather the point. It’s overly processed seed oil, used to cheaply bulk or add flavour on an industrial scale.

Things are phrased on ingredient lists in an obfuscating way, to make it sound healthy or innocuous. Like malted barley extract, makes you think barley = good. It’s just an “extract” after all. But the food industry uses innocuous sounding words to hide things they know the public won’t like. “Malted” = ultra processing to make it sweeter and more palatable.

The point is, any of these things are fairly harmless on their own, or if you just drizzled a bit of oil into your homemade bread or whatever. That’s no issue. But if you’re eating a high-volume of foods with these ultra-palatable and processed additives hiding in them every day, that is what is causing health problems.

And no I don’t mean sneering at nuggets and chips or McDonalds. For myself, it means eating a Pret avocado and egg sandwich, or a granola yoghurt, or pesto pasta, or a vegan burger, or Sainsburys finest haddock fishcakes, and thinking they’re reasonably healthy options, but everything I’ve eaten is chocked full of ultra-processed additives to make them hyper-palatable and make me crave more of it, but the nutritional content isn’t actually that good.

Is the drizzle important, would other methods of adding the honey be acceptable?

What about big standard UK cheese?

What an unnecessary preachy post

A trickle would be OK but definitely not a blob or a dribble.

What about big standard UK cheese?

You uncouth oik, you

I think this healthy eating lunchbox bollocks is hilarious and stupid.

I had loads of pepperami and babybell in my (spice girls) lunchbox. Also lots of dairylea lunchables and Sunny D. Yum!

I can assure everyone that in comparison to my own school packed lunches, by far the biggest detriment to my health has been having children.

Schools need to lighten up.

I have fond memories of Twist & Squeeze drinks, fruit corner yoghurts, viscount biscuits and billy bear sandwiches in my My Little Pony lunchbox.

Child abuse, by todays standards

Yeah I used to get 10 b & h in my lunch box, never did me any harm

Exactly.

Oh i also forgot to mention Frubes. No fuss back then!

Canned vegetables are fine, they aren’t UPF.

Healthy food is not always more £ than convenience food. Baking potatoes are 4 for 75p. Wholemeal pasta is 500g for 75p. A kilo of rice is £2.50.

Morrisons brand chicken nuggets are £4.25 for a bag. Frozen oven chips are like £3 a bag now. Something UPF but disguised as naice like Rana gnocchi is £3.00 for 300g.

Whole food ingredients like potatoes, carrots, wholemeal pasta, rice, are still fairly cheap in the UK. Especially compared to how branded food has increased with the COL. It’s never been a cost issue. It’s about education, basically. And palatability. And that’s okay.

Are schools really banning things like dairy and sesame? I'd be pretty annoyed if I was a parent at that school, dairy is one of the man food groups and important for kids diets. Also the expense and time taken to buy food without these things. I can understand the frube issue as they do squirt everywhere, but banning dairy and other allergens completely is going too far.

The boys at my school legit had shandy in their lunchboxes that they would share with me. I grew up in a rough area though!

and heaven forfend a squirt!

Re. the Babybel thing...

The little cheeses we see in the UK are actually Mini Babybels. Because there are indeed bigger, non-mini, Babybels! The larger cheeses are mostly sold only in France and Belgium, although it's possible to get them in the UK - e.g., ⇒ Babybel large size • EuropaFoodXB • Buy food online from Europe • Best price

I suppose the name makes sense because (i) it's made by Fromageries Bel and (ii) at 380g the Babybel Maxi is still smaller than a whole edam cheese, making it a practical size for a family to buy the whole thing rather than just a cut piece.