Follow these food safety tips, and keep your kids’ packed lunches safe and hygienic.
Any idea where those carefully packed kids’ lunch boxes spend their morning? Chances are they’re stashed on a shelf in a sunlit corridor, or tucked away in hot and stuffy locker room, at the perfect breeding temperature - 5-60 degrees C (40-140 degrees F) - for the bacteria which cause food poisoning.
Many people ignore basic food safety know-how when they're packing up lunches to go, but young children are particularly vulnerable to food poisoning, and it’s a real risk unless you follow basic food safety tips.
HIGH RISK FOODS
Some foods are more likely to be affected by bacterial growth than others. Take particular care with:
Meat, poultry and delicatessen meats like ham and salami
Eggs
Dairy foods, like yogurt
Seafood
Cooked rice and pasta salads
Prepared salads, like coleslaw
Prepared fruit salads
It’s especially important to follow the food safety tips when any of these items are on the menu – and for most of us, that’s every day.
FOOD SAFETY TIPS
Always wash your hands before preparing lunch box food, and keep work surfaces and chopping boards clean.
All cooked foods must be cooled, then chilled, before packing. Make pasta and rice salads the night before, and chill overnight.
Use a mini-ice pack to keep perishable items like yogurt and fromage frais, sandwiches and milk drinks at a safe temperature.
A frozen individual carton of juice can act as a cold pack, and will have thawed enough to drink by lunch time.
Foods shouldn’t be kept unrefrigerated for longer than two hours, and on a hot day, when the temperature rises above 32 degrees C (90 degrees F), one hour is the maximum they can safely be kept out of the fridge.
A well-insulated lunch box or bag will help keep foods cool.
Keep lunch boxes clean, wash daily after use.
Throw away uneaten perishable foods after lunch. If children want to save a little something for later, tell them to choose items which can safely be kept unrefrigerated, like crackers, dried fruits or cakes.
