Gaps in childcare regulations spark new allergy training for staff

More than 20,000 incidents of injury, illness and trauma were recorded at Australian childcare centres last year, prompting a move to overhaul food allergy training.

Alarming gaps in childcare food allergy training are putting thousands of Australian children at risk, prompting the launch of a new national program to equip cooks and educators with vital skills that could save lives.

Despite up to 86,000 children across the country in an early learning setting living with a food allergy, there are currently no national requirements for childcare staff to have food allergen training, according to the National Allergy Council.

Instead, each jurisdiction has their own rules and recommendations – but not all are consistent with their interstate counterparts.

Last year, there were more than 20,000 incidents of injury, illness and trauma at Australian childcare centres, with emergency services called 3275 times as a result.

Lachlan, 2, Isla, 2, Piper, 4, Hugh, 2, and Janah, 3, with head chef Vaishali Patel at Bloom Early Learning. Picture: Mark Stewart

While childcare centres have to report allergic reactions and anaphylaxis attacks that occur in their care, there is no publicly available information on how often these incidents occur.

These gaps, in addition to research by the Healthy Eating Advisory Services, has prompted peak allergy bodies to create a new national training program that gives long day care services the tools to prevent life-threatening allergic reactions.

National Allergy Council chief Dr Sandra Vale said the free online course included 11 short, practical modules that are tailored for cooks, chefs and educators who are working in early childhood education and care.

“These new mini modules … provide practical information about how to manage specific food allergen and other dietary needs,” she said.

The training, which was developed with the support from the Victorian Department of Health, offers practical strategies for managing food allergies and intolerances including coeliac disease, minimising cross-contamination risks, maintaining nutritional quality while adapting meals for dietary needs and providing meals for vegetarian, halal and kosher diets.

National Nutrition Foundation co-chief Margaret Rozman said with the right resources, cooks and chefs in childcare settings would have the capacity to “save time by designing one inclusive menu that meets the needs of all children”.

There are currently no national requirements for childcare staff to have food allergen training. Picture: iStock

Bloom Early Learning childcare head chef Vaishali Patel said without the right training, it would be extremely difficult to prepare food suitable for children with dietary needs.

“Many factors can lead to risk or near miss incidents such as cross contamination, misunderstanding product labels (and) finding substitutes,” she said.

Ms Patel said some companies – excluding her employer – only required staff to have a food safety supervisor certificate.

Therefore, she “strongly believed” national regulation as well as this new training would ensure all centres followed the same food handling and safety standards, which would prevent near-misses and encourage employers to hire qualified chefs opposed to “just anyone”.

“This training provides a clear and detailed understanding of different types of food allergies and intolerances and gives ample ingredient substitute options to make it easy to cater safely and confidently,” Ms Patel said.

Mother-of-two Aparajitha Rajagopalan knows first-hand how inadequate food allergy training could have detrimental consequences.

When her eldest son Avyaan was in childcare at a centre not run by Bloom Early Learning, he had an anaphylactic attack after he was given wheat-based pasta for lunch, followed by a slice of bread – despite his severe allergy to wheat and peanuts.

“He didn’t react immediately in the way people usually expect with allergies, there were no hives or swelling right away. But something was clearly wrong,” she said.

“If we hadn’t picked him up early that day, we might not have known what was going on until it was too late – he was already in respiratory distress by the time we had realised what had happened.”

Ms Rajagopalan said it was crucial educators had the right training because they were on the frontline when it came to allergy safety.

“It’s not just about avoiding obvious ingredients, it’s understanding hidden allergens, reading labels, preventing cross-contamination and recognising the signs of a reaction, even when they’re subtle,” she said.

“As working parents, we put a huge amount of trust in our childcare providers and for some families like ours, that trust means placing our child’s life in their hands … This training can save lives.”

More information on the training can be found at foodallergytraining.org.au

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Originally published as Gaps in childcare regulations spark new allergy training for staff