On April 25, the Tokyo Metropolitan Office of Education released a report that highlights the difficulties it faces in providing school lunches to increasing numbers of students suffering food allergies.
The Case Study Collection of At-School Food Allergy Countermeasure Near Misses and Hints reviews examples of food allergy incidents and recommends how they can be avoided in the future. The report is Tokyo's response to the education ministry's 2015 request in their School Lunch Food Allergy Countermeasure Guidelines for schools to provide feedback on incidents and determine how to avoid similar cases in the future.
Human error proved to be the biggest issue. In several cases children received the wrong dish when their teacher left the classroom or got distracted. Several other near misses resulted from mislabeling trays or losing labels. In a serious incident, a student who eats lunches prepared at home suffered from anaphylaxis. The student's parents had mistakenly sent their child to school with bread containing milk.
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