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To School Health Tip - Keeping Your Child's Lunch Safe
Keeping your child's lunch safe from foodborne illness is easier than
you may think. All you need is good hygiene habits and planning. About
76 million cases of foodborne illness are reported in the United States
each year with 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths. Young children
are particularly vulnerable.
Simple ways to
keep food safe include remembering to wash your hands, have a clean
work surface and clean your utensils to avoid cross-contamination.
Because lunches are often prepared many hours before the child is
going to be eating it, bacteria has a lot of time to multiply. It's
not the same as making a sandwich for lunch and sitting down and eating
it right away, even if you do cross-contaminate, because the bacteria
doesn't have a chance to multiply. You want to refrigerate it promptly.
Any lunch meat or dairy product should be kept cold. Make
sure the fridge is 40 degrees F. Get a thermometer and keep it in
the fridge.
Many schools
don't have refrigeration available to keep lunches from home cold.
The time the child leaves the house until lunchtime usually exceeds
two hours, the minimum that food should be left at room temperature.
You may want to
include an ice pack in your child's lunch box. It fits real nicely
in there. If your child keeps forgetting it or accidentally throws
it away, include a frozen box of juice, which works like an ice pack.
But parents really need to test that theory before actually doing
it.
Another thing
you can try is freezing the sandwich overnight if it doesn't have
vegetables on it. If it's just bread and meat or tuna, you can freeze
it and it will thaw out by lunchtime. But again, that's trial and
error.
With fruits and
vegetables, you don't have to worry. They'll be fine without refrigeration.
If you do freeze them, they won't be as crisp because freezing changes
the texture.
You may want
to consider making your child's lunch the night before. Let's say
Mom decides to make tuna. When the tuna is in that can, it is safely
stored at room temperature because it is sealed.
But once it's
out of the can, bacteria can grow. If you are just making it that
morning, it is closer to room temperature when your child leaves.
It doesn't have that chance to chill overnight. Bacteria like things
at a comfortable temperature like we do. When they reach room temperature
is when they flourish.
If you're preparing
your child a hot food item, the
goal is to keep hot foods hot enough to limit the growth of bacteria.
Using a well-sealed thermos works well. Keep it sealed until lunchtime.
And remember,
at the end of the day when your child brings her lunchbox home, a
good cleaning is always in order. Hot soapy water is effective in
cleaning a lunch box. You can also use a mild bleach solution.
Lastly, if your
child doesn't finish her lunch during mealtime and asks to eat it
later, remember that some
foods cannot be stored safely in a locker or backpack. You have to
educate your child on what is safe to keep. If the child cannot eat
an entire lunch, then explain what perishables should be eaten first.
