seafood allergies+ what's in fishfingers??

[marialuisa]

DD seems to have developed an allergy to prawns (hives, puffy lips etc.), i've had a look on the web and they recommend avoiding fishfingers/processed fish products as they may contain traces of crustacea. The sites have been US/Oz based so do any of you know what the EU allows in fishfingers? They are given for lunch every friday at school and i don't want to take any chances and aggravate the allergy.

Oh I was under the impression that birdseye fish fingers were 100% cod?!
And when you take off the breadcrumbs and look at the meat it is in flakes just like the flesh of a fish (sad, but I checked!). Perhaps it just means that they are made in a factory that also deals with other seafood.... scampi perhpas? Just like so many prodects that don't have nuts as an ingredient, but still say "may contain traces of nuts".

Some of the cheaper fish fingers are reformed and processed looking though.

Look for good fishfingers that say 100% cod and you should be OK. I would be very surprised if any do contain shellfish, there is usually a warning on the packs of foods that do.

Going completely over the top I noticed on a pack of Tesco cod steaks an allergy warning "contains fish",

ahem! i heard cod metioned?

for anyone else who may need to know i got through to bird's eye and established that the regular fishfingers are fine for those with seafood allergy but they won't vouch for the economy range. Wouldn't tell me if they supplied Sainsbury's though (I know school uses Sainsbury's own brand) so we've said no more fishfingers!

If you ring sainsburys customer services (on the side of food packets) they will tell you. We ring them a lot, as our school is nut free and sometimes we need to double check ingredients/factory conditions etc.

If the school is in the UK I know our local school gets extremely cheap grey nasty ff in...
If there was any fish in there I'd die of shock...

this is from the birds eye wed site, it explains how they make the fish fingers and what is in them, whats in the batter etc.

birds eye fish fingers

its says the cod fish fingers have only got 100% cod inside, no other filling.
the Hoki ones are 100% fish too.