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?

@WhereIsMyJumper this screenshot may also help illustrate the point.

It is also sobering that 20% of severe reactions at school happen to children with no prior history of anaphylaxis.

It's worth all school staff getting training to identify the signs of anaphylaxis and what to do. For instance I have had to explain countless times that you don't move a child with an allergic reaction. Even walking can make their reaction much worse. Bring the EpiPen to them

I mean how would you both feel if a child died because of this stupidly selfish woman feeding her DC pesto at school.

People underestimate how dangerous this could be

Forgot to attach the screenshot!.

Sainsburys Taste the difference pesto contains pine nuts and no cashews. the only allergen listed on the ingredients is milk.

However, the ingredients also states that the product is unsuitable for people with a nut allergy because of the method of manufacture.

Oh please, please read the fucking thread. I posted the very first post saying "well, they're seeds so not usually an allergen" and was very quickly schooled by a number of pine nut allergy sufferers who I hope are campaigning for schools to include pine nuts in their widespread nut ban.

With do many other foods the kids could eat it's stupid and selfish to take the risk. I'd be telling your friend this. If one of her kids had the allergy she would think differently. She could put another DC at serious risk.

The lack of knowledge extends to hospitals unfortunately. I had an anaphylactic reaction to medication which was being administered in hospital. The nurse asked me to run across the room to the oxygen! They also refused to administer an epipen even though I repeated asked (gasped) for one.

Luckily all was okay in the end. I read medical reviews on the topic and apparently my experience is (frighteningly) common even in a medical setting. I did know what was happening as I have an allergic child and knew the symptoms but they weren’t so obvious to the medical staff.

Even though they were absolute classic symptoms of anaphylaxis I might add…

I also have a tree nut allergy and am very very allergic to pine nuts.

I take exception to the posters saying that they are seeds and so it is fine.
I was told tree nut allergies often include pine nuts-they are one of my worst triggers.

You only have to google to read horror stories of ppl dying because of other ppls cavalier ignorance.

@Franxie I am disappointed that your friend is so selfish & unconcerned about putting pesto in a school lunch.
Obviously if the rules are inconvenient for her then she doesn't have to follow them.
I assume if it potentially impacted her DC she might be bothered...

Most commercial pesto is made with cashews rather than the traditional pine nuts, for cost and availability reasons. Belazu and Garofalo are two brands that use pine nuts, but it's actually surprisingly unusual. I've just checked products from Filippo Berio, Mutti, Sacla, Barilla, Ocado, M&S, Daylesford Organics and Realfoods by Organico and they all use cashews.

In fact it doesn't sound like it matters either way as pine nuts can still be a problem and if nuts aren't allowed schools would be wise not to allow pesto as obviously they can't check the ingredients.

Obviously the above brands are mentioned for illustration only. Check the labels on any products you buy if you need to avoid cashews.

You can buy nut free pesto, the expensive sacla one I think it is. I used to buy it for my daughters packed lunch at forest school because they were but free. It looks and tastes exactly the same. People would have looked and assumed it was the one with cashews in but it wasn’t and I knew it was fine. If someone had said what you said I would have responded with ‘it’s fine’.
its very very easy to buy pesto with only pine nuts in. So I would assume you were being a busy body to be honest and wouldn’t elaborate when you were insinuating I am behaving badly.

You need to get out more. Or maybe you need to get out less and educate yourself on what a pine nut is.

Or maybe you need to read the thread @Meltdown247

Aren't loads of nuts actually seeds though? Cashews, almonds etc.

Where on earth have you read that allergy charities don’t think it’s helpful? Utter nonsense

Most shop pestos do contain other nuts unless she’s buying premium products. I only released there were cashews in the brand I buy when I thankfully checked before cooking for a child with nut allergy

Allergy UK being 1.

School Nursing Service advise. It most certainly isnt utter nonsense. It creates a false sense of security.

This!
There is no way that a school with several hundred children and adults doesn’t contain lunch boxes with Nutella, or other nut products, homemade cakes etc. It must be incredibly hard to provide veggie kids with healthy nut free lunch boxes day after day. I just don’t buy it. It must be dangerous pushing the illusion that schools are nut free.

Oh fuck off you idiot

Not nonsense at all. None of the major allergy charities recommend allergen bans. Bans create a false sense of safety.

Many many children are allergic to milk, many to eggs, soya, fruit, wheat, fish.

Banning nuts makes everyone complacent.

All children and staff should learn about allergy safety and the importance of good hygiene

My daughter recently had a severe reaction in school because of a child eating a cheese sandwich

My son's school used to ring me every time a child brought in a peanut butter sandwich and they discovered it.

But they didn't bloody well think to ring me when another child threw cheese in his open lunchbox meaning he couldn't eat any of his lunch.

So utterly ignorant.

Depends which pesto, most of the standard supermarket own and branded pesto use cashew nuts now instead of or as well as pine nuts, I find it's only the more luxury or world food brands that still use pine nuts

I would let the school know. Not to be an arse or anything but just as a health and safety matter. They are trying to implement a safety rule and you are withholding relevant information. The school could then send an email stating pesto is not acceptable. Some people may not know it contains nuts

I thought all nuts were the seeds or contained the seeds of every tree /shrub/ plant.