Your responsibilities
As a childminder, it is your responsibility to ensure that you can provide allergen information for the food you serve and that this is accurate, consistent and verifiable.
You will need to be able to identify any child with a food allergy or intolerance and provide them with food which is safe for their consumption. Remember to check the ingredients list of foods you use and note the presence of allergenic ingredients, to avoid giving a food which would trigger an allergic reaction to any such child in your care.
The provision of allergen information concerns any foods purchased pre-packed and non-pre-packed, including home-cooked meals. Allergen information should be easily accessible and readily available to children in your care and their parents or carers.
There are several ways you might decide to do this. You could:
- develop a weekly menu which declares the allergens contained in each meal and snack served to the children in your care, and share this with parents
- declare the allergens contained in your daily menu on a notice or chalkboard for parents to see each morning
- write to parents and let them know that you have allergen information available for all the food you provide to the children in your care, and parents can ask to see this at any time