Now in its 21st year, Food Allergy Week is happening this week until 27 May to once again raise awareness and find ways to address the growing food allergy problem.
Allergy & Anaphylaxis Australia (A&AA), which has organised Food Allergy Week since 2002, is focusing on the food allergy problem facing many school-age children in the country.
“In Australia six to eight per cent of school-aged children have food allergy,” Maria Said AM, CEO of Allergy & Anaphylaxis Australia (A&AA), said. “It would be difficult to find a classroom without a child with food allergy.”
These stats reinforce the measure of Australia’s food allergy problem, with a recent Murdoch Children’s Research Institute research going as far as to suggest that Australia is the ‘allergy capital of the world’ with over five million people in the country living with allergic diseases.
“Thinking of people with food allergy when planning activities goes a long way for people with food allergy who constantly feel like a burden and are sometimes even excluded,” Said said. “Food allergy management is a community issue. We all need to know about food allergy so family and friends with food allergy can have an improved life.”
To that end businesses that are working to help raise awareness and address the food allergy problem, with food brand Buddee, makers of allergen-free spreads, at the forefront. As a parent of two children who both suffer from severe anaphylactic food allergies, the cause of Food Allergy Week is something close to the heart of Buddee co-founder Seong-Lee Ang (pictured).
“The inspiration behind Buddee was my two children, to make life easier for them,” Ang explained. “However, we quickly realised that Buddee is very much for the wider community of Australian families, not just for those suffering from food allergy. Food Allergy Week is an amazing initiative to increase the awareness of food allergy, especially in schools.”
Since its introduction in 2022, Buddee achieved numerous distinctions, including winning the Australian Small Business Champion Awards 2023 (Manufacturing category) in April 2023, the World Food Innovation Awards 2023 (Best Low or No Product category) in March 2023, the Healthy Food Magazine’s Lunchbox Awards 2023 (Fridge and Pantry Shortcuts category) in January 2023, as well as being named Finalist for the Naturally Good Awards 2023 (Best Free From Product category),
“We created Buddee to provide a more inclusive option for school children,” Ang said. “Our goal was to make the school playground that little bit safer for everyone at lunchtime. With so many schools around the country with no-nut policies, we wanted to provide a nut-free, quick, healthy, and tasty option for all the busy parents out there to pack into their kids’ lunchboxes.”
