Is your child's packed lunch safe?

Most parents have already made the decision about lunch arrangements for their children for the new school year. Many of the younger children (from pre-school to primary school) take a lunch kit to school, but the vast majority of them are responsible for their own lunches. They purchase lunches from vendors at school, the tuck shop or school canteen.

One requirement for food to be considered safe for consumption is that it should meet certain time and temperature standards. So cooked food that should be kept hot should never be allowed to remain below 60 Celsius for more than two hours and foods that should be kept cold should not be kept above 4.44 Celsius for more than two hours, as microorganisms such as those that cause food-borne illnesses such as E. coli and Salmonella, will grow like wildfire.

Milk-based drinks

Lunch kits with leftover dinners, sandwiches with cheese, meats or fish, milk-based drinks, etc are prime targets. It is advised that drinks be frozen, sandwiches be chilled and insulated lunch containers be used, with sufficient frozen ice packs to keep the temperature at a safe level. Hot meals should be placed in 'Thermos-like' containers to maintain safe temperatures. These containers should be adequately prepared with hot liquid for more than five minutes and food items should be placed in them above 60 Celsius.

One recent research done by Fawaz Almansour from the University of Texas in Austin, on 700 preschool children's lunch kits, showed less than two per cent of them at safe temperature levels, one to one-and-half hours before lunch time; although 45 per cent of them had ice packs and 12 per cent were placed in the classroom refrigerator.

Work with schools

If parents find it difficult to meet the temperature and time requirements for safe meals, then a good option is to work with schools to build capacity in providing safe, nutritious and temperature-safe lunches for your children. Lunches will be prepared just in time for service, and even if not served as warm as desired in some instances, they would not have sat for more than two hours in the danger zone before service to vulnerable children.

As you send your precious charges back to school, in addition to variety in foods from all food groups as a part of their meals, ensure that it is served at safe temperatures.

Rosalee M. Brown is a registered dietitian/nutritionist who operates Integrated Nutrition and Health Services; email: yourhealth@gleanerjm.com.