The continuing rise in food allergies among young children is making catering an ever greater challenge for daycare settings.
Providing for children's specific needs requires kitchen staff with the skills to prepare lots of dishes every day and the knowledge to find suitable recipes, to source special ingredients and avoid any cross-contamination in the food preparation.
Nurseries can refuse to cater for children with allergies to basic ingredients such as wheat, eggs or dairy products, but it is an option that leaves the children feeling uncomfortably 'different' and their busy parents scrambling to prepare separate meals and snacks every day.
One solution to some of these catering problems is for kitchen staff to learn about cooking substitutes - simple replacements for 'problem' ingredients - and then go on to use them in a nursery's regular repertoire of dishes.
This is now the approach taken at Cargilfield Nursery and School, Edinburgh, attended by my three sons: Angus, allergic to dairy products and eggs, Robin, gluten-intolerant, and Otto, who can eat anything.
Until Mandy Dackers joined the nursery as head cook five years ago, outside caterers delivered the food each day and parents of children on special diets were asked to provide food for them.
'I wanted to cook for all the children, so that everyone felt included and enjoyed lunchtime,' says Mandy. But it was not easy.
In addition to preparing the main menu, Mandy was catering for 10 children, who between them, suffered from six different food allergies. Her limited knowledge of cooking with allergy-free ingredients also meant her repertoire of suitable dishes was very small.
Struggling to give Angus and Robin an exciting, balanced diet at home and seeing the catering difficulties Mandy was up against at school inspired me to write How To Cook For Food Allergies (see box).
My challenge was to find ways to adapt the dishes and baked foods Mandy wanted to feed everyone at school and we enjoy eating at home.
Discovering how to substitute dairy, soy and nuts was relatively simple, as they can usually be replaced with an allergy-free alternative and the cooking method remains the same. Finding substitutes for eggs and wheat flour is more complex, as both the ingredients and cooking methods may need to be changed to allow for the different behaviour of egg-free binders and gluten-free flours. But now that I have learnt to substitute these ingredients, the results taste as good as, or better than, the original!
Using these substitutes has brought huge benefits at Cargilfield. It saves staff preparation time and the worry of cross-contamination while food is prepared, served and eaten.
The 'unallergic' children don't notice any difference, while the allergic children are regularly enjoying the same or similar food. When the menu isn't suitable for some of the children's dietary requirements, Mandy has a wide range of similar allergy-free dishes and baked treats which she prepares in advance and freezes, so that no one misses out or feels different.
Parents are also delighted that their children are eating well and feel included at one of the most sociable times of the day.
'Knowing how to adapt my recipes has made a huge difference,' says Mandy, who now feels it is time for suppliers and catering colleges to respond.
It is still hard to source some ingredients and those that are available in the supermarket come in small packets and can be expensive. Mandy hopes caterers will become confident in preparing allergy-free food, which in turn will encourage suppliers to offer the necessary ingredients. 'Then,' she says, 'maybe, I will be able to buy the volume of ingredients I need at a reasonable price.'
But she adds: 'Cooking for these children is worth the extra trouble. You should see their faces when they can take a biscuit or some other treat, like the other children.'
COOKING FOR FOOD ALLERGIES
How to Cook for Food Allergies: A step-by-step guide to preparing delicious food, simply, from scratch by Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne (Rodale International £16.99). Lucinda is a professional cook and co-author of Leith's Techniques Bible. See www.lucindabrucegardyne.com/
COOKING SUBSTITUTES
Choosing the right ingredients to substitute common foods such as dairy products, eggs and wheat flour is the key to successful allergy-free cooking. Here's how:
TO SUBSTITUTE EGGS
Used in ... Replace....
Sponge cakes, muffins and fruit cake each egg with 50ml/2fl oz apple or apricot puree or cold ready-made custard made with custard powder 1/2 tsp baking powder, replace plain flour with self-raising flour
Fruit loaves each egg with 50ml/2fl oz milk, use self-raising flour and add 1tsp baking powder for every 110g/4oz flour in the recipe
Banana cakes, muffins and bread each egg with 1 small mashed banana or half a large banana; use self-raising flour
Pancakes the whole recipe with 85g/3oz plain flour, 30g/1oz tapioca flour,
350ml/12fl oz milk
Biscuits each egg with 50ml/2fl oz milk and use self-raising flour in place of plain flour
Beefburgers and sausages Provided meat is very fresh and cold it will bind together well without egg
Fishcakes Omit the egg and make a stiff mashed potato. Before frying, roll fishcakes in seasoned flour or breadcrumbs to prevent
them breaking up while they cook
Coating batters Mix 110g/4oz self-raising flour with 150ml sparkling water
Note that it is very difficult to eliminate egg and wheat flour at the same time
TO SUBSTITUTE WHEAT FLOUR
Used Replace wheat flour with...
To make shortcrust pastry 50% rice flour and 50% fine cornmeal
Brownies and soft batter cakes the same quantity of potato flour. For every 110g/4oz potato flour, add 1 tsp of baking powder and an extra egg
Sponge cakes 50% rice flour and 50% corn flour. For every 110g/4oz flour use 2 tsp baking powder and 3 eggs
To thicken sauces and gravy the same quantity of rice flour or corn flour
To make crepe-style pancakes 50% rice flour and 50% buckwheat flour
To make batter for fish 50% potato flour and 50% corn flour. Also add 1 tsp of baking powder for every 110g/4oz flour used in the recipe
Yorkshire puddings 50% rice flour, 25% tapioca flour and 25% potato flour
To coat food for frying rice flour, corn flour or cornmeal
TO SUBSTITUTE OTHER GLUTEN-RICH INGREDIENTS ...
Used in... Replace with...
Oats in porridge millet flakes, brown rice flakes, buckwheat flakes, brown rice or risotto rice
Oats in flapjacks buckwheat or rice or millet flakes - add one egg per 4oz gluten-free flakes to bind
Breadcrumbs gluten-free breadcrumbs
Pasta and noodles rice and millet pasta, corn pasta, rice noodles
TO SUBSTITUTE DAIRY PRODUCTS
To replace... Used ... Replace with ...
Milk to pour over cereal, to make soy or rice milk; I normally
white sauce, custard or in use soy milk, as its
baking, batters, puddings consistency is closer to
and mashed potato that of cow's milk
Dairy yoghurts for eating from the pot and natural or fruity soy
for smoothies yoghurt
Butter to flavour vegetables, olive oil
gentle frying, grilling and roasting
for making a 'roux' for thickening 2 tbsp veg oil for every
soups, sauces and stews 40g/11/2oz butter
in cakes, pastry and biscuit an equal quantity of dairy- free
dough, crumble topping and hard baking margarine
firm butter-cream icing for spreading
over cakes
Cream in soups, savoury and sweet sauces soya single cream
and in homemade ice cream
in dips and sauces mayonnaise and natural
soy yoghurt
Soft cheese for dips and to spread on soy cream cheese - comes in
bread and crackers herb and garlic flavours
Hard cheese for snacks and cooking In my view, hard soy cheese
is not a viable alternative
to hard cheese
FACTS
5-8 per cent of children under the age of six experience food intolerances
2-4 per cent of children suffer from severe food allergies to basic ingredients such as wheat, dairy and eggs.
