Food Allergy Week

Australia has one of the highest rates of food allergy in the world. In fact, one in 10 babies born in Australia will develop a food allergy.

With no known cure for food allergy, awareness and education is of utmost importance, as a severe allergic reaction including anaphylaxis can rapidly become life threatening and must be treated as a medical emergency.

Pacific Lutheran College currently has 20 students from Prep – Year 12 who suffer from a life-threatening allergy. The triggers vary from student to student and can include peanuts, eggs, soy, various seafood and other nuts.

During Food Allergy Week, we take the opportunity to remind parents and students of how we can keep everyone safe while at school. It is up to all of us to be allergy aware: to know how to minimise the risk of a reaction, to know what to do if a reaction happens and to understand and support family, friends and colleagues living with food allergies.

It’s important to:

• Take food allergy seriously;
• Know what allergies are present in your school community and avoid sending high risk foods in lunch boxes;
• Talk to your children about never sharing food; and
• Promote hand-washing before and after eating.