A handful of area parents are flabbergasted after their kids’ school lunches have been critiqued and sent home uneaten.

The situation was first reported in Durham Region, with a boy being told not to eat homemade banana bread because it contained chocolate chips and a girl who had a small bag of chips confiscated from her lunch bag.

But it has been happening here, too.

The explanations vary as to why food has been policed by teachers or school lunch helpers. Several parents reacted when simcoe.com addressed the issue through its facebook page.

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“A teacher told my daughter, Maisy, she couldn’t bring salmon as it made him sick to his stomach,” Barrie mom Louise Brazier said, adding her daughter wasn’t even allow to unwrap her sandwich in class. “She had dietary restrictions so her choices were limited.”

Another mom was upset when her kindergarten son’s Welch’s fruit snacks returned home during his first week at Maple Grove Public School after being deemed unhealthy.

And Colleen Strang said on Facebook her daughter had to dump out a water bottle infused with fresh kiwi after it was deemed a hazard for those with allergies.

Ferndale Woods Elementary School principal Joanne Merkley said the school complies with the provincial health and phys ed curriculum, teaching children about healthy choices.

“When it comes to lunches, students bring what they and their parents decide to bring,” Merkley said. “We have lots of families with different cultures and backgrounds and different eating practices. We don’t have any rules other than that, the rule would only be around those with an anaphylactic reaction, like nuts.”

She added lunch helpers will encourage younger students to eat their sandwich before snacks.