Do School Lunches Make You Sick?

Ask almost any mom what she dreads most about back to school, and she’ll tell you it is making lunch every day. We want to help. This week, Erin has suggestions to make school lunch more fun and Tammy has great tips for keeping lunch healthy. The doctor in me can’t help but talk about food-borne illness and the risks that live in those brown paper bags.

Most of the common lunch ingredients can spoil, even over a short period of time. Cheese, cold cuts, dairy products and salads with chicken, tuna and eggs are all perishable.

Food that goes unrefrigerated allows bacteria to multiply. If lunch is going to sit out for a while, especially when temperatures are warm, consider insulated lunch bags (great for the environment) and cold packs. As a bonus, the food will taste better and increase the chance your child actually eats the healthy meal you prepared.

Freeze your bread. My sister who makes five lunches every night, makes the sandwiches on frozen bread which defrosts by the time her kids eat lunch, but keeps the sandwich insides cooler. Yogurts and cheese can be frozen as well and left to defrost in the few hours before lunch.

If you make lunch the night before, make sure to keep it refrigerated until it is time to walk out the door.

When in doubt, throw it out. If you aren’t sure when you bought the turkey or salami, don’t take the risk. If bacteria are already lurking, a lunch bag is an ideal setting for them to grow.

Ingredients that won’t go bad, and are great for school trips:
– peanut butter and jelly
– whole fruit and dried fruit
– snack packs

If your child eats a lunch prepared at school, the following tips apply to them as well.

– Remind kids to wash their hands before lunch, especially after using the bathroom. eColi, which is found in feces, is a common causative agent of food poisoning.

– Teach them to keep their food off the table and on a napkin instead.

– Avoid lunch sharing, especially with the increasing prevalence of food allergies.

– When possible, kids should avoid sharing out of the same bag, especially during cold and flu season.

Hopefully, I didn’t just make school lunch prep more stressful, but food poisoning is definitely something to protect against.