Nut free lunches

My girls are lucky that they don’t have a nut allergy, so when I pack their lunches, I want to make sure that they are safe for others if they do have a nut allergy (I would feel terrible if anything I packed caused an issue with another child, I would never forgive myself). I read all ingredients before I purchase any product, although there is always a disclaimer on products that state: “May contain traces of peanuts, nuts or sesame seeds”.

This is a legal cover from the manufacturer as some items might be made on equipment used for nuts or similar products. This disclaimer is a legal protection to make sure that the company is covered.

With this knowledge, I find it difficult to pack lunches that don’t have any of these disclaimers on them.  I was alerted by one of the staff at the girl’s school to a breakfast bar that had this very disclaimer. The teacher made me feel terrible and I thought maybe I need to bake things to ensure that they don’t have nuts.

Baking is fine; however I have done this before on numerous occasions. I have invested the time and energy; all to find that the girls don’t eat it. Not to mention purchasing only food items just for that recipe to then never use them again.

Upon looking into nut allergies, they state that 1-2% of the population suffer from these; however I find it interesting that we are hearing about them more and more. Has there been a change somewhere? Is it environment, food, or something else that might be the cause?  When I was at school I don’t remember anyone having a peanut allergy and we freely ate peanut butter sandwiches. Maybe there were some kids who were allergic, but we had no idea.

I find it interesting that one school of thought is that not giving kids certain types of food can create allergies.  I am not a professional on the subject and of course not a doctor, so I believe that if you are allergic you are, whether you have eaten a nut or not. This is obviously how you are meant to be.

Below are great links for more information on nut allergies:

• The Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA)
• Sydney Children’s Hospital – Factsheet – Allergy – Tree Nut

Do you have issues creating a nut free lunch? How have you dealt with kids who do have nut allergies?  Send in your comments and remember to vote for us for Best Australian Blog.

Keep checking out the site, I am going to check out some recipes that kids will like and also is nut free, still working on this one… so stay tuned.