Pesto in lunch box - nut free school

[Franxie]

I’ve got a friend who has twins my kids class, they are reception age. She doesn’t let her kids have school lunches as she doesn’t think they are healthy.

Today I asked her daughters what they had for lunch and they told me a croissant, mum clarified it was a croissant with pesto spread inside, chicken, mozzarella and tomato slices.

The school is nut free so I said oh doesn’t pesto have nuts in it, she said it was fine, I said it’s really not allergies can be deadly and she insisted it was fine, school never pays attention, it’s healthy and if school ever do ask she will say it’s nut free pesto.

WIBU to report this to the school?

Actually, most of the supermarket owners brands of pesto also contains cashew nuts. It’s incredibly selfish of a parent to send in any food containing nuts to a nut free school.
OP, tell your friend about the cashew nuts, and notify the school too.

It's hot completely out of hand pandering to a minority. Why should the child have to give up her delicious lunch because someone might have an allergy?

Allergy sufferers should be taken out of school during the lunch hour by the parents/nanny/grandparents etc or given a safe room to eat their nut free food.

Not trying to patronise you. Some nut allergy sufferers have kiwi allergies alongside them, and if that's the case I'd expect the school to add kiwi to the ban. Similarly if an allergy sufferer was reactive to pine nuts the school should add them.

My son has a bad cashew nut allergy and cannot have pesto for this reason.

Regardless of the nut issue, a croissant with an oil-based spread and cheese inside it is as far from healthy as you can get. If your friend thinks that’s healthier than school dinners she’s delusional.

Pesto is often made with cashew nuts and this is one of the most severe allergies. It could result in a fatality. She knows and she doesn't care. I would have a quiet word with school.

Peanuts, pine nuts, pecans and walnuts are what DD tested allergic to, though she does actually eat pine nuts in pesto no problem, but I think the OP’s friend is being a dick.

Mine too, also can't have ready made curries from supermarkets as they are full of them

Don’t be silly.

It is correct.
Just because you are allergic to nuts doesn’t mean you are allergic to pine nuts and vice versa.

Of course you can be allergic to both but the pine nut allergy is not due to the nut allergy. Just as a cat is not a nut just because you are allergic to both nuts and cats.

I DID say I wasn’t sure whether the pesto had other nuts in it - depends if home made, if shops made then the brand etc

There’s a dangerous tendency for people to think that only nut allergies can be serious when in fact anaphylaxis regardless of cause is life threatening. I appreciate that sometimes nuts can be ‘dusty’ which makes them prone to becoming airborne particles but if any allergy is severe then contact of any type is likely to result in a reaction.

And the award for the most out of touch, ridiculous post goes to...

Most jarred pesto does contain cashews, as pp say above — but you can buy pesto without cashews (eg. Genovese pesto), or make your own pesto without pine nuts using basil and pecorino.

We had to be careful with pestos when DD sat next to a boy with severe nut allergies at primary school. He could have pine nuts but not cashews, and DD liked pesto pasta for her packed lunch, so we got used to looking for the non-cashew pesto!

It very often has cashews if it’s come from a supermarket (Sacla and Tesco’s own both list cashews as ingredients for a start). As someone whose child has a peanut and nut allergy I wouldn’t let them eat pesto.

That said I wouldn’t be overly worried if a child at school was eating it and half the time schools have nut bans with no actually nut allergic children. If there’s actually a severe nut allergy in the class I’d expect the school to put in more useful allergy protection - scrupulous handwashing, table cleaning etc. There’s a very very dairy allergic child in my oldest’s class, but they haven’t attempted to ban yogurt and cheese - that child sits in a designated “clean” spot at lunch, the whole class is monitored washing hands upon arrival and immediately after eating, they all know not to share food with Katie etc etc.

This won’t help and actually we once had an incident when a child who went to my dd nursery had a reaction every single
week for 3 weeks . They realised that it was the once a week music session where they had recorders etc out after lunch and the child was sharing with others who had dairy which he was allergic to. Awareness is more important than bans which give a false sense of security.

Really? You call protecting children from potential death ‘pandering’?

This post has made me feel better about myself

I can eat shop brand pesto, and have been called a 'liar' for saying I have a nut allergy 🙄

😄😄😄 wow, what an awful take

Yes you would be unreasonable. Cleary she’s been doing it ages & it’s not been a problem, I cannot stand this culture of telling tales on people; it’s not a duty

Did you know that all shop branded pesto contains cashew nuts?

That is the opinion at my children’s school. It’s the responsibility of the allergy sufferer to ensure they avoid nuts not the responsibility of the majority..seems to work perfectly well as the allergy sufferers (all 2 of them!) sit in a separate area for lunch.

No one is patronizing you & no one is suggesting for a moment that a child with a pine nut allergy should be fed pesto but as the info you have shared states, someone with the allergy won't react by being in the same room as someone eating pesto.
That's the same as a child with a dairy or soya or strawberry allergy - the whole school does not need to be free of it in the same way as with peanuts

I’d go so far as to say this isn’t a case of ‘telling tales’. The OP has spoken to the parent, the parent can’t be bothered. If someone is taking a stance where a child could be put in danger, that’s a safeguarding concern. We all have a duty to report safeguarding concerns.

@GeorgianaM there are plenty of "delicious lunch" options that don't involve potentially killing your classmate. Even exposure post eating is enough in some cases. Some people are so so selfish about this kind of thing.

Well i don't know what to say then, I'm allergic to nuts but can eat shop bought pesto 🤷‍♀️