Peanut-safe schools are becoming more common. Many schools are taking this approach in order to provide a safe learning environment for students with a peanut allergy. Peanut allergy is the most common life-threatening food allergy in children. By making sure that your daughter’s lunch does not contain peanuts or products with peanuts, you are helping to ensure the health and well-being of students at her school.

With that in mind, it can seem challenging to come up with healthy, tasty lunch ideas that don’t include peanuts. For many parents, a peanut butter sandwich is not only a favourite for many kids, but also quick, easy, and affordable. Below are some peanut-free lunch ideas for your daughter’s lunchbox. 

Start by planning a balanced lunch that has at least three of the four food groups from Canada’s Food Guide. Take a grain product such as whole grain bread, whole wheat crackers, or a whole wheat tortilla and combine it with a meat or meat alternative such as chicken, egg salad, tuna, hummus, or ham. Add cut up vegetables and fruit and a container of low fat milk or yogurt for a healthy lunch with plenty of staying power.  Pack the lunch in an insulated bag and keep cold foods safe with mini freezer packs, or a frozen juice box or bottle of water. Keep hot foods hot by using a wide-mouth thermos.

Make a list of foods from each of the four food groups that your daughter likes and post it on the fridge. Keep these foods in stock so when you are looking for lunch ideas you have her favourites handy. Involve her in planning lunch by asking her to pick foods from the list.

The key to a peanut-free lunch is to read the ingredients list on all packaged and prepared foods. Do this every time you shop, as manufacturers may change their ingredients. Do not purchase foods that list peanuts, peanut oil, peanut butter, or state “may contain traces of peanuts” in the ingredients list. These words also let you know the product may contain peanuts:

• Arachis oil
• Artificial nuts
• Beer nuts
• Goober nuts, goober peas
• Ground nuts
• Mandelonas, Nu-Nuts™
• Mixed nuts
• Nut meats
• Valencias

To make sure your daughter and her classmates do not pass food allergens between one another, tell her to wash her hands before and after eating, and make sure she does not share her lunch with others.

Written by: Heather Harvey, RD as published in the Windsor Star, September 2007.