Following my email to the DFES concerning schools providing nuts and/or foods containing nuts, here's their response
Thank you for your email of 22 September about nut allergies and the new school food standards.
I appreciate your concerns. However, as you may be aware, last
year the Government commissioned an independent School Meal Review
Panel (with members from a variety of backgrounds, including dieticians
and nutritionists; heads, governors and support staff; and the catering
industry) to advise them how best to improve school food and recommend
new school lunch standards. Additionally, the School Food Trust was
asked this year to recommend standards that should apply to food
offered across the school day, including the food that should be
offered in vending machines and tuck shops.
The Department for
Education and Skills (DfES) and the School Food Trust listened
carefully to all available views and we subsequently announced a suite
of food standards in May. These standards come into force from the
autumn term. The new standards can be viewed at www.teachernet.gov.uk/healthyliving.
It
is important to note that these new standards only set minimum
requirements that must be adhered to. Local authorities or school
governing bodies are free to decide to set additional criteria, which
will apply to food and drink provided in their schools. This would
include whether to ban any specific ingredients or products from school
lunches or from being sold on school premises. Additionally, schools
do not have to comply with the specific School Food Trust proposal to
stock vending machines with seeds and nuts and there is nothing to stop
a school from banning particular items (or asking parents not to send
such items in lunch boxes) to ensure the welfare of all its pupils.
As
you may know, there are many common triggers to allergic reactions. As
well as peanuts, these can include tree nuts, sesame, eggs, cow's milk,
fish, certain fruits such as kiwi fruit, and also penicillin, latex and
the venom of some stinging insects. We feel that it is not a
practicable option to ban from all schools all triggers that may cause
allergic reactions. Because of the range of foods that can cause an
allergic reaction, it would place what some may regard as an unhealthy
restriction on children's diets.
Whilst I understand you are naturally concerned for your child,
the approach the Government has adopted when a balance needs to be
struck is to encourage schools and their employers to develop effective
management systems to support individual children. If this requires
certain foods to be banned from specific schools to minimise the risk
to individual pupils then schools and local authorities are still able
to do so and the introduction of new food standards will not change
this.
The joint DfES/ Department of Health guidance 'Managing
Medicines in Schools and Early Years Settings' exemplifies this
approach and covers severe allergic reactions (anaphylaxis). The
Teachernet Website also provides advice and includes a link to the
Anaphylaxis Campaign website (who have also published specific advice
for pre-schools, school caterers, parents, students and nurses).
The
DfES expects schools to be responsive to the needs of their pupils
including those with allergies and take appropriate measures to
minimise any risk. This is entirely consistent with the view of
Central Government that such decisions are taken at a local level by
local authorities or schools, taking into account their own
circumstances and the needs of their pupils.
Yours sincerely
Matt Vallily
Public Communications Unit
(c) Allergy Network 2006