OUR SCHOOL IS A NUT - FREE SCHOOL!
Due to a number of NUT-allergic- students in our school we are asking all parents to send completely NUT free lunch boxes, snacks or/ and food that are meant to be shared in school.
To help reduce contact with nut allergens and the possibility of severe reactions (anaphylaxis) in someone with a peanut or tree nut allergy:
Living With Peanut or Tree Nut Allergy
The only real way to treat a nut allergy is to avoid peanuts and tree nuts. Avoiding nuts means more than just not eating them. It also means not eating any foods that might contain tree nuts or peanuts as ingredients.
After checking the ingredients list, look on the label for phrases like these:
- "may contain nuts"
- "produced on shared equipment with nuts or peanuts"
- "produced in a facility that also processes nuts"
People who are allergic to nuts also have to avoid foods with these statements on the label. Although these foods might not use nut ingredients, the warnings are there to let people know the food may contain traces of nuts. That can happen through something called "cross-contamination," when nuts get into a food product because it is made or served in a place that uses nuts in other foods.
Some of the highest-risk foods for people with peanut or tree nut allergy include:
- Cookies and baked goods. Even if baked goods don't contain nut ingredients, it is possible that they came into contact with peanut or tree nuts through cross-contamination. Unless you know exactly what went into a food and where it was made, it's safest to avoid store-bought or bakery cookies and other baked goods.
- Candy. Candies made by small bakeries or manufacturers (or homemade candies) may contain nuts as a hidden ingredient. The safest plan is to eat only candies made by major manufacturers whose labels show they are safe.
- Ice cream. Unfortunately, cross-contamination is common in ice cream parlors because of shared scoops. It's also a possibility in soft-serve ice cream, custard, or yogurt places because the same dispensing machine is often used for lots of different flavors. Instead, do as you would for candy: Buy tubs of ice cream at the supermarket and be sure they're made by a large manufacturer and the labels indicate they're safe.
- Asian, African, and other cuisine. African and Asian (especially Thai and Indian) foods often contain peanuts or tree nuts. Mexican and Mediterranean foods may also use nuts, so the risk of cross-contamination is high with these foods.
Sauces. Many cooks use peanuts or peanut butter to thicken chili and other sauces
Peanut reactions can be very severe, even with extremely small amounts of exposure. This might be because the immune system recognizes peanut proteins easier than other food proteins.
The allergens in peanuts are similar in structure to allergens in tree nuts. This may explain why almost half of people who are allergic to peanuts are also allergic to tree nuts, such as almonds, Brazil nuts, walnuts, hazelnuts, macadamias, pistachios, pecans, and cashews.
People who are allergic to one tree nut are often allergic to at least one or two other tree nuts. As with peanuts, tree nut reactions can be very severe, even with small exposures. Research has shown that peanuts are the #1 culprit of fatal food allergy reactions, followed by tree nuts.
Please help us prevent the possibility of any severe reactions to nuts.
Kind Regards,
School Nurse, Anne Yletyinen & Director Rune Svaninger
Staff Page
Last week the students from Grade 11 when on a field trip to Scania in Södertalje.
