Deer Valley Elementary and Middle School Cafeterias
Peanut and Tree Nut Reduced Zones
Deer Valley USDA Food & Nutrition Department recognizes how serious and stressful a peanut and tree nut allergy can be for students and parents. As a result, it is our policy NOT to serve any food items that list peanuts or tree nuts as an ingredient as part of our school meals. This includes labels that have the statement “may contain traces of peanuts and other tree nuts”.
In addition to limiting food items with peanut and tree nut ingredients, our district Dietitian reviews all food labels once per year to identify labels indicating a food has been processed on the same equipment as peanuts or tree nuts. Any product with this designation is noted on our allergen guide which can be found on the Food & Nutrition website.
Despite these precautions, we cannot guarantee a 100% peanut and tree nut free environment in the cafeteria. We consider our elementary and middle school cafeterias peanut and tree nut reduced rather than peanut and tree nut free for the following reasons:
- Labels are subject to change by the manufacturer at any time during the school year. Manufacturers are constantly changing their labels; we are not able to keep up with each and every change for each and every product that we carry.
- Manufactures are not required to say if an item was manufactured on the same equipment or in the same facility as peanuts and/or tree nuts. We can pass on information when it is provided to us but we do not know what the manufacturer chooses to leave off their labels.
- Students are able to bring peanut containing items from home and eat them in the cafeteria.
