Health : Health Buzz: Sack Lunches Often Reach Unsafe Temperatures

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Health Buzz: Sack Lunches Often Reach Unsafe Temperatures Posted: 08 Aug 2011 09:10 AM PDT Study: Packed Lunches Often Reach Unsafe Temperatures The lunches parents send their kids to school with almost always reach unsafe temperatures. So suggests a new study by Texas researchers, who tested 705 lunches and found that 90 percent were warm enough to foment the growth of bacteria—potentially leading to food poisoning. Even lunches cooled by ice packs were typically warm enough to be dangerous, according to findings published today in Pediatrics. "This study should be an eye-opener for the public," study author Fawaz Almansour, a researcher in the department of nutritional sciences at the University of Texas—Austin, told Time. "We don't always know what got us sick. You can't easily point a finger at a particular food, but sack lunches could easily be the culprit." Parents can minimize the risk by choosing vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, while avoiding spoil-prone foods, such as meat and dairy products. The study authors also suggest skipping the mayonnaise, since it contains eggs and tends to go bad quickly. And while refrigerating a packed lunch is ideal, parents should teach kids to first remove food from insulated lunch boxes, which can prevent food from staying cool in the refrigerator. Would Your Kitchen Pass a Restaurant Inspection? Riskiest Foods: 3 Tips for Protecting Your Family From Illness Food-Borne Illnesses Still a Threat, Despite New Food-Safety Law Ten years ago, while training to be a family doctor, U.S. News blogger Kenny Lin spent several months admitting sick children to a hospital's pediatric ward. He almost always treated toddlers for severe dehydration—the result of vomiting and diarrhea. Most of them had picked up a highly contagious bug called rotavirus from contaminated food, feces, or other children. It was easy to spot them, with their sunken eyes and parched skin, Lin reported in February. They looked desperately thirsty, but were too ill to drink. Unfortunately, the only treatment for most food-borne illnesses was—and still is—fluid replacement and time. Today, the infant rotavirus vaccine has made this type of food poisoning much less common. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still estimates that food-borne illnesses affect 48 million American children and adults each year, leading to 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths. In recent years, infectious bacteria such as salmonella have been implicated in outbreaks of food poisoning from contaminated eggs, peanut butter, and raw vegetables. A report in the New England Journal of Medicine revisits the large salmonella outbreak in 2008 that sickened at least 1,500 people in 43 states and Canada. More than 300 people were hospitalized, and two died. Months of meticulous detective work by public health officials from the CDC and state health departments eventually traced the source to tainted jalapeño and serrano peppers grown on a single farm in Mexico. [Read more: Food-Borne Illnesses Still a Threat, Despite New Food-Safety Law.] Avoid Salmonella From Eggs: 4 Steps to Take Now Just How Safe Is Our Meat? Hungry for Healthy School Lunch Ideas? Students are carrying more than just their backpacks as they head back to school. Almost 20 percent of kids from kindergarten on up are packing extra pounds, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. America's children are increasingly afflicted with adult diseases, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension. The culprit? In part, the pizza, French fries, and other greasy fare that fills your kid's cafeteria. According to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit group that promotes preventive medicine, children who buy lunch at school are more likely than kids who bring their lunch from home to be overweight and obese and less likely to eat fruits and vegetables. While the Healthy School Meals Act passed last year attempts to improve adolescent eating patterns by setting new nutrition standards for all food served in schools—from lunchrooms to vending machines—the only way to guarantee that your child's lunch is nutritious and well balanced is to pack it yourself. Thankfully, creating a healthy midday meal doesn't have to be time-consuming, U.S. News reported in 2010. The key is creativity, says Sherrie Le Masurier, a lifestyle columnist who runs School Lunch Ideas, a trove of healthy recipes that can be quickly prepared. "A lot of kids get bored with sandwiches," she says. "But take the same ingredients and package them in a different way, and it becomes a lunch your child gets excited to eat." Your kid might stick her tongue out at a ham and cheese sandwich, in other words, but gobble up ham and cheese shish kebabs—chunks of skewered whole-grain bread, ham, cheddar cheese, and a few cherry tomatoes. [Read more: Hungry for Healthy School Lunch Ideas?] What Parents Can Do to Keep Kids From Snacking Their Way to Obesity Better School Nutrition: Is a Healthful School Lunch Just a Nudge Away? This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

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