According to a study just published in Paediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Paediatrics, over 90% of food in lunch-boxes of pre-school Toddlers attending Texas child care centres were deemed to be stored at an "unsafe" temperature: and this included those that had been provided with a ice block to keep them cool. Here are their findings:
- 39% had no ice pack
- 45% had one ice pack
Of the perishable food within the lunch boxes, 88% was at room temperature!
Only 1.6% of the perishable food was within a safe temperature range.
What these figures suggest, is that there is room for improvement in the way we package food for our children's school meals: and certainly, parents and schools need to look at the "cold chain of storage"of their child's school lunches, so that they can reduce the risk of developing food poisoning.
As one young mother said when hearing these results: "No more chicken sandwiches"!
Source: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2011/08/04/peds.2010-2885.abstract
2 comments:
This definitely makes sense and I'll be ice-packing the small boy's lunchbox when he gets that old, but the question arises for me - how did we survive? There were definitely no ice packs in my lunchbox during my 12 years of school and I often had chicken sandwiches! And I'm pretty sure some years my lunchbox sat in a bag outside the classroom in direct sunlight.
Hi Amanda: I think that freshly prepared food always beats bought food: but the study does highlight the "risks" involved in not storing food at the correct temperature. It's an area we can probably, by simple changes, manage the food temperature chain better. When I think back on some of the things I did as a "callow youth", I'm amazed I'm still alive!!
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