Hellobee

I’m going to start off by telling you that this is not the most glamorous article you’re ever going to read about packing lunches — assuming there are any glamorous articles about packing lunch, of course. There are no adorably decorated eggs or sandwiches shaped like cartoon characters, and there aren’t any clever recipes that will entice your reluctant eater to try a new food. But I am going to talk about something important: lunch box safety.

As parents, we take great care to pack lunches and snacks that will make our children strong and healthy. But a few common sense habits will also assure that those lunches are safe to eat by the time our little ones sit down to eat them.

Start with Safe Preparation

When it’s time to start packing a lunch, begin with the basics: wash your hands with soap and warm water and be sure utensils, cutting boards and counters that will be used for lunch prep are clean.

Avoid cross-contamination by washing your cutting boards with hot, soapy water when you switch from preparing one food to the next, particularly when you are working with highly perishable foods such as meat or mayonnaise based salads.

Use Good Equipment

When you select equipment for packing lunches, choose items that are designed to keep food at safe temperatures. Use insulated, lunch boxes and gel-filled ice packs for cold foods and vacuum flasks (more commonly known by the Thermos brand name) for foods meant to be eaten warm.

In 2005, the Center for Environmental Health found lead in the vinyl linings of several soft-sided lunch containers. Lunch box manufacturers have generally addressed this problem, but to be on the safe side choose lunch bags from reputable companies and look for containers with labels certifying they are lead-free. Many parents also choose to buy food containers and water bottles that are BPA-free due to safety concerns about this chemical that is sometimes found in plastics.

Keep Cold Foods Cold

Harmful bacteria multiply rapidly in the “danger zone” between 40 and 140° F, so it’s important to keep the temperature of your cold foods below 40°. Last fall, a study was released that showed that 90% of preschool lunches brought from home were at an unsafe temperature by the time kids sat down to eat. This was true regardless of whether those lunch boxes were packed with an ice pack or stored in a refrigerator  at the school until lunch time.

What can you do to keep your little one’s lunch cold? Start by always including a few ice packs in your child’s lunch box. Start with at least two, but bump it up to three or four if your child will be eating the food you pack throughout the day. It’s also helpful to put an already chilled lunch into your child’s lunch bag. If you pack your child’s lunch the night before, you are probably already taking care of this step by storing it in the refrigerator over night. But if you pack lunch in the morning, consider placing the lunch in the freezer for a few minutes to chill it quickly. You’ll want to be careful not to freeze it in case that affects the quality of the food though. If you place the lunch in an insulated lunch bag before you put it in to cool down, be sure to unzip the bag. If you leave it zipped tight, the lunch will be insulated inside and cold air can’t circulate inside the bag.

Another way to lower temperatures inside a lunch bag is to freeze one or more of the foods you’ll be packing for lunch. I have not had good luck freezing water bottles and juice boxes solid because they usually aren’t thawed enough to drink by lunch time, but I do put my children’s water bottles in the freezer for about 20 minutes every morning to make them a little icy. I also include frozen yogurt tubes, grapes, peas and corn and my boys report that they are still cold but no longer frozen when they sit down to eat. (No — they don’t mind that the veggies aren’t hot.)

Keep Hot Foods Hot

A thermos is a nice option if you would like to pack warm foods such as soup or pasta for your child. For the best results, warm the thermos container before you add the food. I usually fill our thermos with boiling water from the kettle when I am pouring my morning cup of tea but very hot tap water will also work for this. Let the container sit with the hot water inside and the lid on while you heat the food to 140° or higher. Dump out the hot water and put the food in the thermos. It should easily stay warm enough to be safe until lunch time.

Clean Everything Daily

Be sure to clean all lunch equipment thoroughly when you unpack the lunch box at the end of the day. Washing the containers that held food is a no-brainer, but give the lunch bag itself a good scrub down with hot, soapy water too. Food containers can leak and they don’t always get closed all the way after lunch, resulting in smears and splashes of food in the lunch bag. These need to be cleaned daily to prevent bacteria from growing. If the lunch box is machine washable, send it through the washing machine at least once per week too.

What steps do you take to keep your child’s lunch safe?