Make sure you pack a 'safe' lunch for your kids' this school year

August 08, 2011|from KY3 News

Stomach bugs are pretty common among children but your child's tummy troubles could sometimes be a result of what he or she is eating for lunch. Just when you think you have packed a really health lunch, it might surprise you to find out it could be spoiling before the lunch bell rings.

Juice box: Check. Grapes: Check. Turkey sandwich with a side of salmonella: Not too appetizing. A new study finds food that sits in a lunch boxes all morning can get warm enough to encourage bacteria growth -- even when packed with multiple ice packs.

"Parents are thinking that packing the lunches with an ice pack is helping, but actually it's melting in a couple of hours," said Dr. Laura Jeffers.

Jeffers is a pediatric dietitian at the Cleveland Clinic. She says the bacteria growth could be enough to make kids sick.

"They're going to be ingesting food that bacteria has been growing on, so they could become ill, they could have vomiting or diarrhea," said Jeffers.

Researchers measured the temperatures of more than 700 preschoolers' sack lunches about an hour and a half before lunch was served.

More than 90 percent of the lunches with perishable food were found to be at an unsafe temperature. Bacteria can grow when perishable food reaches temperatures over 40 degrees but the average temperature for such foods had climbed to more than 60 degrees by lunchtime.

Jeffers suggests avoiding anything with mayonnaise.

Also, "along with putting ice in there, if you freeze the drinks, it'll help keep things cold," she said.

Keeping things cold can keep kids safe. In nearly 40 percent of the lunches studied, parents had not packed any ice packs at all.

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