Policies - Nut Free

RATIONALE

An important issue at Wembley Primary School is the number of students enrolled within the school in a number of classes who have a severe allergy to nuts, and particularly peanuts.  The WA Department of Health warns that the occurrence of nut allergy is rising and is of concern within the general community. Food allergies affect only a small proportion of the population; however the effect on a susceptible person consuming allergenic proteins can be detrimental to their health and potentially fatal.

GUIDELINES

Our duty of care at this stage is focused upon the students within our care who exhibit a variety of symptoms from minor to extremely severe on the slightest contact with nut based products. In severe cases it may cause anaphylactic shock, a life threatening allergic reaction which causes the heart to stop beating.
In conjunction with the parents of the individual students and their teachers, action plans and awareness have been developed and are in place within the school. The older students themselves are aware of their allergies and can avoid the products when obvious.
The difficulty is that in several instances the smallest and casual contact with nuts, nut dust and nut based spreads including peanut paste and hazelnut spread can cause a severe reaction.
As a result of discussions with the Department of Health and parents we are asking that parents of all students avoid all nuts and the use of nut based spreads in the provision of snacks and lunches to students at the school.  This especially means avoiding peanut paste, hazelnut spread, nut bars and bags of nuts. (A list of foods to avoid is attached.)
Understandably, this is a difficult issue in terms of eating habits of children, however, as we are a caring school community, all parents would appreciate the need for Wembley Primary School and its community to ensure the safety of all students at our school.

Foods Containing Peanuts

The following foods are the most common and likely to appear in school lunches:

  1. Peanut butter sandwiches
  2. Peanut butter dips and crackers
  3. Reeses Peanut Butter Cups
  4. ALL Chocolate/Hazelnut spreads
  5. Nuttella contains 68% Peanuts, 18% Hazelnuts
  6. Nuttella dips and crackers
  7. Snickers Bars
  8. Snickers Pods
  9. Picnic Bars
  10. Incredibites - Choc/Hazelnut Flavour
  11. Cadbury/Nestle Fruit and Nut Chocolate
  12. Mixed fruit and nut snacks
  13. All Cakes and Biscuits containing Peanuts
  14. Some Muesli Bars contain Peanuts

Ice creams

  1. Peters Original Trumpet
  2. Nestles Original Drumstick
  3. Streets Vanilla Cornetto

Easter and Christmas Chocolates

A large amount of Easter Eggs, hunting eggs and chocolate Santas are made from compound chocolate which contains peanut oil.