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?

No, it has no impact on those without allergies and a massive impact on those who do. In addition it does nothing to spread information about allergies or reduce risk. It doesn't help anyone as it fosters a false sense of security for all.

They banned Frubes at my DS school as they were deliberately squirting tham at eachother .
As for the lunchbox Police on here you know what your child will eat OP and its better that your child actually eats something than bins it or brings it home.

I wouldn't say that lunch is 'dangerous'. Bit ultra processed for me, but not dangerous

OP has updated, school has got back to them this morning and said it was the frube (squirty yoghurt) due to a milk allergy

Do you not think gruyere, tinned tuna and sliced chicken are not processed? Or do you cook a whole chicken just for your kid's lunch.

@user09876543 my logic isnt flawed at all as I dont believe there should be food bans at all. I believe there should be education.

You however seem to want all the poor children with a food allergy to suffer, lump them all together and let them make all the sacrifices while all the normal kids can work away without any impact.

It is completely different to separating out children for additional resources, your child is getting additional support from the school, that's positive discriminations, what you are suggesting is the opposite of that.

Juice cartons, Frubes and Peperami would definitely not be allowed at our school due to the healthy food rules. Any brightly packaged snacks, UPFs or beverages containing sugar, including juice, are forbidden.

Can't see which foods go against allergies, as dairy isn't airbourne afaik. Some people can have airbourne strawberry allergies although applying that to the Frube would be a huge stretch.

OP has come back and said that it was the Frube as there's a dairy allergy.
Yes, dairy allergies can be airborne too.

@ButteryBiscuitVase contents of frubes can become airborne!

Anyone who's worked in a primary school lunch hall knows that Frubes can be airborne.

Your school bans UPFs? How on earth do they define UPFs? It's a very new concept (with no single definition that I've ever seen) to have made it to the banned list.

Milk allergies can be airborne - particularly in cafes with milk frothers, for example.

Yes true! They can literally squirt them at each other...DD isn't old enough for that to have crossed my mind 🙃

Nowhere is yoghurt more airborne than in the presence of a baby with a spoon

My bin men wouldn't empty my black wheelie bin the other day just put a note on it saying to remove the stuff that wasn't allowed to be in it. Really irritating. I assume it's because it had hay in it - hay which is animal bedding and according to their rules cannot go in the green bin and must be in the black bin. I hadn't bagged it up because why create more landfill, esp for stuff that disintegrates.

Bloody hell, my autistic/arfid kid would have starved! Thankfully he’s at secondary now, where they wouldn’t give a shit if I sent him in with a bag of Haribo and a can of Red Bull for his lunch* 😂

*I don’t

Wow the snobbery - and misconceptions:

all ‘breads’ are processed - you have to process the grains to make the flour and then, if shop bought, it will have a shedload of salt and preservatives;
all shop-purchased chicken and tinned tuna will also be ‘processed’ to be canned or packaged
all cheese and yogurt has been processed in order to produce it from milk.

Utterly ridiculous. So if you go to the park and there's a kid with an allergy there are your favourite foods banned? Because there's a risk it could squire or splatter there too. What about if you get a plane and there's a child on the plane with an allergy? Are all other passengers banned from eating things they like eating? There's a risk you might get struck by lightning if you go outside too, should we just never go outside? So because there's a 'risk' it could splatter or squirt (even though it's never happened and probably never will), because one child has an allergy the entire year/school can not eat the things they like. Is this really what schools have descended to? That every other child has to be restricted? What about the child with the allergy being restricted to another eating area so that everyone else's kids can have a normal life?

Yes, they used to sell the larger version in about the 80s in England

I'm intrigued by it, too. I'm 68, and it was never a thing when I was at school. (I had a severe allergy to shellfish, but I didn't find out till I was in my late teens, and I seem to have become desensitised because I can eat prawns etc without any problem now.)

While we may not have eaten so many UPFs as people tend to now, there was plenty of corned beef, spam, fish fingers, tinned foods, bought pies, cake and biscuits etc being eaten, and sliced white bread was the norm in most households. I can't think of anyone I know under 40 with a significant food allergy. I know someone who claims to be allergic to garlic, but it's bollocks, because they've eaten stuff with garlic in at my house with no ill-effects whatsoever.

I wonder if there are environmental factors at play.

I'm sorry you needed to justify your child's lunch. There are so many people who think they are perfect, at 70 I've come to realise that love is the most important ingredient in a child's life so you quickly and lovingly solved the problem for your child. I think that's great.

My kids school tried to have a bake sale to raise money and wanted parents to bake. I was all set to contribute when we got a text saying bakes must contain no nuts, no dairy, no eggs, no citrus fruits and nothing that says 'may contain traces of nuts', I decided against it and I think lots of other parents did too because they didn't do another bake sale in the next 3 years my kids were there.

I'm all for making allowances but that just felt like a ridiculous ask.

It will be the pepperami, could have someone's eye out

I would have asked the school if they could suggest any recipes 😂.

It's possible that people died of anaphylaxis due to food allergies and never made it to school in the past. They might not have known why they died. My childhood neighbour, now in his 60s, had a peanut allergy

I bet she spends the weekend fishing for tuna, anything less would be negligent wouldn't it?