News Brown bag lunches overheating and possibly unsafe.

[tom_mai78101]

With the start of school quickly approaching, many parents are preparing to begin the daily ritual of making those famous brown bag lunches that they feel provide a healthy and safe meal for their children while at school. Unfortunately this new study shows that these lunches may not be as healthy as some parents think. Even the use of ice packs was not enough to keep the foods from rising in temperature.

The study, led by Fawaz D. Almansour from the University of Texas at Austin, looked at lunches from 235 daycare children at nine different Texas locations on three random days between 9:30 and 11 a.m.

Out of a total of 705 lunches examined only 11.8 percent were kept refrigerated. Out of the lunches, 91 percent were sent in insulated plastic lunch bags but even these bags were not able to hold the temperature. The majority of the perishable food items reached near room temperature at an average of 63.7F. Out of a total 1361 perishable food items tested, only 22 items were in a safe temperature range below 39.2F.

Ice packs were not as much help as many parents think they are. A total of 61 perishable foods were packed in containers with ice packs and only five of these stayed in the proper temperature range.

Brown bag lunches overheating and possibly unsafe

In a new study published in Pediatrics, researchers reveal that more than 90 percent of the perishable food items found in the school lunches they tested had reached unsafe temperatures by the time they were to be eaten by children.

medicalxpress.com

Well, our old school pasttimes of eating your lunch from your brown bag, looks like it's damaging our health in some way.

 

[The Helper]

Yeah well I never got sick from Brown Bagging it. There is a difference between what they think is acceptable and what REALLY is acceptable. I wonder if this was a government study and if so how many millions they paid to get this critical information? There is enough preservatives in Ham and Cheese to embalm the dead Ham and Cheese sandwich packed in a ziplock baggie or pbj, bag of chips, banana, some cheese crackers and maybe a bottled water, juice or soda. How is that going to get damaged. Now for the people that like to pack eggs or like raw fish or chicken... might be a problem, but really you don't need a study to know that

 

[tom_mai78101]

Recent DEHP food contamination events in Taiwan here had made some people believe that some plastic containers may contain harmful substances if it contained heated food. I won't concur nor disagree about that, but I just wanted to know how dangerous some heating properties of containers may be if we put warm to hot foods into them.

At least, very least, we have a published article about this, so that future references can be made to support or cast doubts on it.

 

[The Helper]

I would certainly hope that people would not think that by putting something in a brown paper bag that it would do anything to keep hot food hot or cold food cold. Brown paper bags are good for storing and carrying stuff, not for keeping stuff fresh. In the US, hardly anyone uses brown bags for anything anymore. If kiddos don't have lunch boxes they usually use those little plastic bags that are so environmentally bad. Ziploc baggies are usually used to store individual portions of food that are contained within the bag. I know almost nothing about China so I am assuming by what you are saying that those bags are used more there and other places in the world.

We had a bunch of scary news stories a number of years back about plastic containers and reheating stuff in them. I personally do use Plastic containers to nuke stuff and my definition of microwave safe is it does not melt in the microwave

 

[Darthfett]

Maybe this is why I've built up such a strong immune system.

 

[Ninja_sheep]

Wow, this article is so misleading.
It's not even about those brown bags. It's about any food container that doesn't cool the food.
Obviously food reaches room temperature by lunch time. Big surprise.

And the CDC claims food is not save kept at room temperature for two hours. Yeah right. Takes more like 6-8 hours.

Some of rules regarding food safety in the US are really stupid.
For example you have to take a new plate every time you go to a buffet. Sure it looks nice, but how exactly is it unhealthy if you use the same plate again?

Or I knew this guy who ran a hotel and also hosted some buffets on holidays. He told me how he always has to throw away leftovers. He would gladly give it away to charity but he can't because it's "unhealthy" to have food in the open for more then two hours.

 

[FireCat]

Some of rules regarding food safety in the US are really stupid.Or I knew this guy who ran a hotel and also hosted some buffets on holidays. He told me how he always has to throw away leftovers.
He would gladly give it away to charity but he can't because it's "unhealthy" to have food in the open for more then two hours.

The rules isn't so ridiculous and doesn't it depends what kind of food it is?
Well, you should know that food can contain staph or other nasty bacteria even if it looks and smells fine.
If leftovers be allowed to sit at room temperature more than 2 hours. Seriously. would you eat it ?

 

[Accname]

here in europe our law enforces super markets to throw away food which reaches its expiration date. there are people living only from food they pick out of the trash of super markets. food which is perfectly fine.
they do not pay a single cent for their food and they get much more and of better quality then many families which have to pay for it.

what i am always thinking about is, that the human immune system is only as strong as it needs to be. if you live your life in a perfectly clean area you will be weak and get ill on direct contact with bacteria, there are people living in the trash, surrounded by really dangerous stuff but they are perfectly fine, they might even do better then we. because their immune system had its time to adapt to the dangerous surrounding area.
the more we try to stay clean the weaker and more fragile to illness we become.

 

[phyrex1an]

what i am always thinking about is, that the human immune system is only as strong as it needs to be. if you live your life in a perfectly clean area you will be weak and get ill on direct contact with bacteria, there are people living in the trash, surrounded by really dangerous stuff but they are perfectly fine, they might even do better then we. because their immune system had its time to adapt to the dangerous surrounding area.
the more we try to stay clean the weaker and more fragile to illness we become.

The thing is, you only have to look at the mortality rate of diseases over the last 200 years and see that our way of life is a pure win. Your opinion doesn't match the facts.

 

[Ninja_sheep]

The rules isn't so ridiculous and doesn't it depends what kind of food it is?
Well, you should know that food can contain staph or other nasty bacteria even if it looks and smells fine.
If leftovers be allowed to sit at room temperature more than 2 hours. Seriously. would you eat it ?

Ofc not every food. Ice cream for example
Or some stuff just isn't tasty anymore. Say fries or milk.
But steak, noodles, or rice are no problem imo.

All those health regulations always are extremely careful. I'd easily eat some steak after five hours at room temperature assuming I can reheat it.