School allergen ban is nutty

DECADES of prohibiting certain foods such as nuts completely in schools could be coming to an end.

The National Allergy Strategy has released a new guide to provide clarity for schools about anaphylaxis and allergies.

The changes come after the number of Australian schoolaged children with allergies has risen in the past decade and is now estimated to affect one in 20.

“It is not recommended that schools ban food and, as such, schools should not claim to be free of any allergen,” the new rules state.

Instead it promotes an “allergy aware” approach that focuses on implementing a range of appropriate risk-minimisation strategies such as having allergen-free special zones when children do cooking in schools.

Allergy & Anaphylaxis Australia chief executive Maria Said said that while asking parents of kindergarten children not to pack a peanut butter sandwich was still a good riskminimisation strategy, schools should not rely on being nutfree.

She said experts still did not know why the number of Australian children with allergies continued to grow.