Lunch box safety

[lujo238]

I have found lots of great lunch box ideas on here for my kids.  My question is how do you keep the food at a safe temperature until lunch time?  Most of the lunch boxes I have researched only keep food at a safe temperature for a couple hours.  That's no good if you are dropping you kid off at 7:15 and lunch is at 11 or 12.  I really want to start sending my kids lunches next year so any advice would be appreciated.

[Minamyna]

I honestly wouldn't worry about it. When I was in France I was amazed how little was refrigerated, almost nothing, and everyone was fine. Literally, things coming out of a refrigerator and into an insulated lunchbox are not going to raise enough to cause the bacteria level on the food to rise to a toxic level.

 

I mean I take my lunch that normally is refrigerated and eat it at 2 or 3 pm without problem, I don't even put it in a lunch box.

 

When you are eating poorly handled not fresh food then you want to worry. Its the same epidemic that causes up to eat Whole30, just because that 4 day old pulled pork has been kept to temp and properly refrigerated and reheated doesn't mean you should eat it. 

[Peebles]

I usually prepare my lunch the evening before and take it out of the fridge / go to work at about the same time (I'll eat it around 12-1pm). I've never had any problems. Just don't send them out with sushi in the hottest middle of summer, I guess. ;-)

[Physibeth]

I always used an insulated bag with a cold pack in it, but generally speaking if your items are already cold and the lunch box is insulated you should be fine.

[pjena]

For day camp this summer, because it gets hot outside and he's using a paper bag, I freeze my son's juice box (Don't judge.    I waste $ and buy the 1/2 water juice boxes, if that helps).  It keeps the food cool fine until lunch.  During the school year, I don't bother.  It doesn't get very hot in the school and his bag is insulated.

[lujo238]

Thanks everyone for the reassurance.  Now I just need to find a good lunch box that won't leak.  I like the ones with compartments but they are pretty expensive.  Especially since I know my 12 year old will lose his at least once or twice. 

[pjena]

The blog 100 days of real food has some great posts on lunchboxes and divided containers.

[jennor]

When I was breastfeeding and had to keep the milk cool until leaving work I used these. The lid is a freezer block, so the box stays cool.

 

http://www.frozzypack.se/engelska/products/default.html

[nyangel1227]

I use this lunchbag for my son.  the whole thing freezes.  if its especially hot out, I will add an icepack to it.  most of the time when I pick him up around 5pm, the containers inside are still pretty cold.

http://smile.amazon.com/PackIt-Owls-Freezable-Lunch-Inch/dp/B00B93RYSS/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1404151156&sr=8-9&keywords=freezable+lunch+box

[peacefrog]

I am a big fan of the Bento box style lunch. Google it, there are lots of things. My kids are homeschooled, but we do a co-op every week when I pack a lunch. Typical things might include organic hotdogs cut into fun shapes, hard boiled eggs formed into fun shapes, cucumber/carrots strips rolled on cute picks, organic lunchmeat rolled onto picks, fruit or veggies cut into shapes, etc. With an ice pack and a bottle of water, it makes for a very fun lunch and helps my kids not feel so different from everyone else. In fact, many moms and kids come around to the table to check out the lunches I pack.

[MrsStick]

Just wanted to add my experience tonight with an amazing combo that would be perfect cold in a lunch box. Cold Asian pork roast (my recipe used honey, but the main players were ginger/garlic/coconut aminos/nut butter) plus chopped white fleshed nectarine is to die for. I put it on corn tortillas, but for a lazy dinner it was perfect. For lunch box ideas, chop the nectarine small maybe with an onion/pepper (if tolerated) and cilantro for a 'salsa.'

[evarr]

I don’t think any fresh food will go bad in that short period of time unless you haven’t kept it in the refrigerator or not heated properly.  I prepare lunch for my kids around 7 in the morning. Their lunch time is at 12.  Food remains good to eat and never experienced any problems.  If you are still concerned, another option is to use the insulated paper carry bags that certain food caterers use to deliver boxed lunches for picnics and other such events. But I prefer using normal lunch boxes for kids.

[praxisproject]

We get some hot weather down under, so a lot of our lunch boxes come insulated or with a space for a water bottle to freeze.

 

That said, most of the year these really aren't required, but they're handy on super hot days.

 

Just make sure the kids can open them before they go to school with one, some of the really cool lunch boxes seem to have tricky opening functions for little fingers.

 

Lunchbots have some great leak proof containers that I really like and the little round ones are perfect for mayo or nut/coconut/sun butters.