Below is a version of the original Allergy Buddies booklet I gave to the parents supporting our scheme, to help make their shopping and preparation easier. Please feel free to copy or adapt it to suit your suituation. You can download a pdf version from here which also contains all the recipes.

Allergy Buddies Booklet

Sample Letter

You may like to send a letter to all the parents along with your info, letting them know a bit more detail about your child and their allergies. Here's a version of a letter I have sent to the parents of my son's Allergy Buddies.

Dear Allergy Buddies,

Thank you for helping us to help my son learn how to manage his allergy in a new environment. You are providing him with a buffer-zone while he and his classmates learn to be allergy aware. He is a sensible little fellow and knows not to swap, share or touch anyone else’s food. The class all wash their hands before and after a meal and the classroom is checked for dropped food and litter before afternoon classes. Gradually he will gain the maturity and confidence to manage his allergy by himself. He is very lucky to be able to do this in the company of friends.

My son is severely allergic to egg and nuts. He is tested annually and has not had another anaphylactic reaction since he was 8 months old (see info on anaphylaxis at the back of this booklet). The school already requires parents to avoid nut and nut products in lunchboxes. This scheme aims to provide a level of protection to my son from egg as well.

Egg can crop up in odd places but with labelling on shop-bought products as good as it is, shopping is much simplified. Under recent EU ruling, all manufacturers are required to declare the major allergens (the things people are allergic to) however tiny an ingredient. Already this is making a huge difference to our ease of shopping.

My hope is that this booklet will make your task as easy as possible with lists of suggested lunchbox foods, where you can find them and what the pitfalls can be. It also contains some of the egg-free recipes I use at home in case you want to include home-made treats. All these dishes have been enjoyed by my children and their friends, so they should taste great and be fun to make together. Be bold and creative, get messy and have fun cooking!

Last but not least, thank you from the bottom of my heart for caring enough to help make my son's lunchtimes safer and more friendly than we could have imagined possible.

Warmest thanks,

Alice Willitts  

Lunchbox Ideas

These lunchbox foods WILL contain egg

Eggs, mayonnaise, quiche, scotch-eggs, mini lunch-eggs, Jaffa cakes, egg custard tarts, meringues, cakes, trifles, flan, sausage rolls, lemon curd, croissants, pain au chocolat and bricohe, Ritz crackers

These lunchbox foods MAY contains egg 

Cake, savoury or sweet biscuits, pâté , sausages, sauces and dressings, pork pies, pasta

What to avoid

•  Boiled egg
•  Mayonnaise
•  Quiche
•  Egg sandwiches
•  Scotch egg and mini lunch eggs
•  Cake (unless egg-free)
•  Flan
•  Egg Custard / trifle /egg custard tarts
•  Meringue
•  Lemon curd
•  Croissants, pain au chocolat and brioches
•  Ritz crackers and Jaffa cakes
•  Sausage rolls
•  Egg dressings: salad cream, thousand island, tartare sauce  

Sometimes contain egg:

•  Sausages and cocktail sausages
•  Sauces and dressings
•  Pâté
•  Sweet or savoury biscuits
•  Pork pies
•  Pasta

Problem Foods

Mayonnaise

Mayonnaise is bad news as it is made almost entirely with egg and is a common addition to sandwiches, sauces, salad dressings etc. Here are the alternatives that we use.

Shop-bought mayonnaise alternatives are:

• Cream cheese
• Quark or other whey cheeses
• Thick plain yoghurt seasoned with salt and pepper
• Crème fraiche seasoned with salt and pepper
• Egg-free mayonnaise (we think this is disgusting but I know others who like it)
• Mock-mayo (see Recipes)

Custard 

Bird’s Eye and Ambrosia custards are egg-free. So are some ready-made puddings containing custard. As a general rule the more ‘authentic’ custard puddings are the more likely it is they’ll contain proper egg custard. Products aimed at children tend to be made with Bird’s Eye type custard, so it’s just a case of checking each product I’m afraid. Trifle contains custard and sponge and while the custard may be egg-free, the sponge will always contain egg. Custard tarts always contain egg.

Sausages and sausage rolls 

I have yet to find any shop-bought sausage rolls without egg either in the sausagemeat or as a glaze. Home-made can be brushed with milk instead of egg and made with one of the egg-free, shop-bought sausagemeats. Sausages fall about half and half into those that contain egg and those that don’t. Please check the ingredients list or ask the butcher. NB horseradish sauce contains egg so avoid horseradish sausages please. Cocktail sausages are a good size for lunchboxes and again about half of those on the shelves do not contain egg. Egg-free hot dogs (frankfurters) are available, the American style tend not to contain egg and the German ones do. The overall message with sausages is always check the ingredients.

Bread 

Most savoury breads are egg-free: brown and white tin loaves, baps and rolls, pitta breads, tortilla and flat breads, baguettes, bagels and pizza dough but always check the label or ask the baker. Egg is sometimes used to glaze speciality breads. Sweet breads almost always contain egg or are brushed with egg.

Pasta and noodles 

100% Durum wheat semolina dried pasta is egg-free, which is most of the dried pasta and spaghetti on offer. There are some dried, egg pasta and they often say so on the packet (for example egg vermicelli) and on the ingredients label. Fresh pastas and gnocchi all contain egg. Rice noodles are usually egg-free but other noodles aren’t, again checking the ingredients is the only way to be sure.

Batter 

Fried foods, coated in batter or made entirely with batter often contain egg if made fresh. However there are plenty of foods where you might expect to find egg in the coating that are actually egg-free. This is because batter can be made without egg, particularly now that manufacturers can replace the properties of egg with cheaper alternatives that have a longer shelf life. However, foods made entirely with batter like doughnuts and pancakes usually contain egg.

Labelling

 On ingredients labels egg is called:

• Albumen
• Dried egg
• Egg (all bird eggs)
• Egg Powder
• Egg Protein
• Egg white
• Egg yolk
• Frozen egg
• Globulin
• Lecithin (egg)
• Livetin
• Ovalalbumen
• Ovoglobulin
• Ovomucin
• Ovovitellin
• Pasteurised egg
• Vitellin
• Whole egg 

Shopping

The two rules to use when shopping are: 1) read the ingredients list every time as manufacturers do alter their recipes and 2) if there’s no label, be absolutely sure the producer or retailer has told you what all the ingredients are.

The quickest and easiest foods to shop for are those which have no added ingredients, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, unadulterated cuts of meat or fish, milk, cheese, butter and flour etc, the raw ingredients. Pretty soon, you will have learnt which types of food to pay special attention to and which you can count on to be free of egg which speeds things up. Label reading is important for all processed foods, which includes things we may not think of as ‘processed’ like biscuits, spreads, pizzas and even bread.

Cross-contamination is far more likely to occur in a bakery or on the delicatessen counter because the foods which are safe are handled and placed alongside foods that are not. As a result, these present more danger than packaged food for severely allergic children and the risk of buying these loose goods would be too high if my son were eating them. I think that for Allergy Buddy lunchboxes, as long as the item your child likes does not actually contain egg it should be fine.

‘May Contain…’

Many packaged foods display 'May contain...' warnings on the wrappers. For lunchboxes, as my son is not going to be actually eating your child’s food, my view is that any product that does not list egg or nuts among its ingredients is ok. If a label says ‘May Contain Egg’ it is definitely not safe for him to eat so if he is eating at your house please observe these warnings.

‘This Product Contains…’ or ‘Allergy information…’ boxes are a fantastic, first-glance check for allergens. You can confidently put back on the shelf any product that claims to contain egg or nuts. However, they are not failsafe, so if a product appears to be egg-free and nut-free it is essential to check through the ingredients list to be sure.

Egg free product lists

Egg-free product lists are available for all the major supermarkets, so if you would like a comprehensive list of own-brand products from your chosen supermarket let me know and I will order one for you. They can be very useful if you buy a lot of readymade foods, like to plan your shopping in advance or if you shop over the internet.

Safe Choices

Here is a list covering some of the lunchbox problem foods, to try and make your shopping easier. Please be aware that manufacturers do change their ingredients from time to time and checking the label is the only way to be sure a product is safe.

BISCUITS 

SAVOURY BISCUITS that don't contain egg

•  Cream crackers: Jacob’s, Waitrose
•  Water biscuits
•  Plain breadsticks by Kallo, Goodies, Waitrose, ASDA
•  Parmesan breadsticks by Kallo
•  Ryvita, plain
•  Oatcakes and mini-oatcakes
•  Cheese thins
•  Poppy seed thins
•  Mini-breadsticks
•  Mini-rice cakes
•  Rice cakes (not sesame)
•  Plain tortilla chips
•  Matzos

It is quite common for savoury biscuits to contain egg (more than sweet biscuits) so please check labels carefully.

SWEET BISCUITS that don’t contain egg

•  Digestives
•  Rich Tea
•  Garibaldi
•  Shortbread
•  Shortcake, fruit and plain
•  Hobnobs
•  Bourbon
•  Jam sandwich or Jammy Dodgers
•  Malted milk
•  Gingernut
•  Oatcakes: ginger, mixed berries
•  Party rings
•  Custard creams

This is just a selection, I’m sure there are more plain biscuits that are safe, and more coming onto the market all the time. Ingredients lists are short and easy to check.

CHOCOLATE BISCUITS that don’t contain egg

•  Milk and plain chocolate Digestives
•  Penguin
•  Kit-Kat
•  Blue Riband
•  Milk and plain chocolate Hobnobs
•  Waitrose Waferbreaks, milk and plain

A tiny selection here but again, just check the packets of your favourites for eggs and nuts. 

CAKES

Not a lot of variety on the supermarket shelves for egg-free cakes but here are the ones we like plus some seasonal treats.

CAKES that don’t contain egg

•  Mrs Crumble’s Apple, Ginger or Caramel cakes (n.b. the Fruit Cake contains nuts) from supermarkets and health food shops
•  Dutch Honey Cakes/loaves available in some supermarkets and health food shops. Yummy spread with butter.
•  Soreen malt loaf
•  M & S apple fruit loaf
•  Raisin and cinnamon swirl loaf
•  Flapjacks (always egg-free but can contain nuts or sesame seeds so check the ingredients)
•  Mr Kiplings apple pies
•  Caramel shortcake slices
•  Fruit / Raisin buns
•  Mini fruit buns (ideal lunchbox size) 

SEASONAL

Hot cross buns are usually egg-free. Mince pies often contain eggs and nuts but some simple, shorctrust mince pies are egg-free and nut free. For home-made mince pies, brush with milk instead of egg. Pancake batter can be made without egg (Shrove Tuesday - pancake day). Simnel cake and Christmas cake contain egg and nuts.

FRUIT BARS

Fruit bars are great for lunchboxes - try Humzingers from supermarkets and fruit strips from health food shops. Sadly for us, most muesli and cereal bars are loaded with nuts - just check the packet carefully.

Alternatives

Dips and dippers – a great way for children who hate sandwiches to get the carbo/protein balance in a lunchbox. See dip ideas in the recipe section. Add dippers like plain breadsticks, pitta breads cut into strips, tortillas cut into triangles, tortilla chips or savoury biscuits. Add in some vegetable sticks too.

Falafel – see the recipe section or buy ready-made from the supermarket. 

Soup – hot soup in a flask for winter is a great warmer. Add in mini pasta shapes (egg-free), lentils or barley for a more filling meal. If your child doesn’t like the texture of lentils blend the soup to a smooth consistency after cooking and add a splash of milk or cream. If you make it pretty thick they can spoon the soup out without risking spills. Buy a wide-neck flask so they can eat the soup directly from the flask without pouring.

Salads with egg-free dressings – try vinaigrette or yoghurt dressing or mock-mayo. Rice, Couscous, Pasta, Potato, Buckwheat and Quinoa all make filling salads

Chicken drumsticks or chicken strips – home cooked or ready-cooked. Or to jolly up leftovers from a roast, cut into chunky strips, roll around in a baking tray with some ketchup and soya sauce and blast for 10 mins in a hot oven. Other good mixes are honey, grain mustard, olive oil; honey, soya sauce, olive oil, mustard; yoghurt, honey, oil, herbs; lemon juice, oil, herbs. Mix quantities to your own taste.

Slice of cold pizza – shop-bought are usually fine, just check the ingredients. Or make your own.

Cold sausages – sausages sometimes contain egg to bind the sausagemeat. Cocktail sausages can be bought ready-cooked or fresh from most supermarkets, it is just a question of checking labels thoroughly to find the ones that are egg-free. I usually buy chipolatas and then twist them in the middle and cut them before cooking – nicer sausages and more economical.

Sausage rolls – use your own recipe with egg-free sausagemeat and remember to brush with MILK not egg. Ready-made sausage rolls always contain egg, either brushed onto the pastry or in the sausagemeat. Deli or bakery sausage rolls or those from stalls at markets almost always contain egg too but you can ask the baker.

Wraps – make a wrap by using a tortilla or flat bread and folding a filling up in it. Looks more interesting than a sandwich but essentially the same thing in disguise.

Fruit bread sandwiches – make up a cream cheese sandwich using a fruit bread loaf.

Pasties – traditional Cornish Pasties and other pies or pasties are glazed with egg to give them that authentic brown crust. You can make your own and brush them with milk instead – look just as good. There may be shop-bought alternatives but I haven’t found an egg-free one yet. Puff-pastry pasties are sometimes egg-free but not so nice cold.

Pitta pockets – pittas filled with chicken or falafel and salad or whatever your child likes best.

Cubing - Cubed cheese, ham etc with breadsticks / ricecakes / oatcakes

Chapatti and dhal – include some vegetable sticks too.

English Muffin – good with creamy cheeses, goats cheese, Marmite etc. Doesn’t look like a sandwich but of course it is!

Be Allergy Friendly

Don't put nuts, peanuts or sesame seeds in your salads or breads.

Try pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds instead.

Remember not to buy crackers or breadsticks containing nuts or sesame seeds