Leaders in special diets
Education Catering helped to develop school policy standards (issued in 2020) for managing allergen requirements. This included a process for analysing individual pupils. The LACA Allergen Management Guidance for Catering in Education aims to support schools, caterers and pupils in understanding the best practice for caterers in education with regards to managing allergens safely.
View the standards LACA Allergen Management Guidance
We have rigorous procedures and training in place for staff so parents can be assured that it is safe for their child to eat at school. To prevent cross contamination, our school kitchens are unable to accept any products that are brought in by parents or guardians. More information is available in our policy.
Schools’ responsibilities
Schools are expected to take the lead by working with Education Catering to feed children safely and therefore agree to follow the LACA standards. Schools should read our full policy and the standards which you can find below.
To keep children safe, it is the school’s responsibility to make parents/guardians aware that they are required to provide Education Catering with the information and evidence of their child’s special dietary needs, for children registered at their school. The school must direct the parents/guardians to Education Catering website so they can create an online account to register for a medically identified special diet for their child.
As best practice, we recommend that all children requiring a medical special diet are served first and escorted to the counter in addition to wearing an orange band. It is the school’s responsibility to ensure that each day the correct children wear the orange silicon band that Education Catering provide so they are identified by our catering team at the service counter so they are given their special meal. In addition to an orange band, schools are required to sign medically identified special diets – Identification at Service Time form (HC301) to confirm what additional identification method they will use. Contact your district manager for your area if you need this form.
Offer your lunchtime team free allergen training
Education Catering offer school lunchtime supervisory staff a one-hour training briefing on food allergies at no cost to your school. The briefing covers:
- Allergic reaction responses
- The requirements of food safety law
- The procedures we have in place, to ensure the safety of customers who require a special diet for food allergy or intolerance reasons.
To book this training simply email a request through to: [email protected] and we will be in touch to arrange a mutually convenient time.