On Monday, just about every media outlet you can think of reported on this study from the forthcoming September issue of the journal Pediatrics. The attention-grabbing headline was that more than 90% of home-packed lunches brought by 700 kids to daycare had reached unsafe temperatures by the time they were eaten.
Noting that cold foods should be stored below 40 degrees Fahrenheit and hot foods above 140 degrees, the study concluded that less than 2% of lunches tested containing perishable foods were within the safe temperature zone (even though half of those lunches contained at least one ice pack.) The study’s authors urged parents to use yet more ice packs to prevent foodborne illnesses and concluded that “[s]afe practices and relationships between food handling and personal health need to be taught and reinforced.”
Now, no one wants to pooh-pooh the prospect of little kids falling ill from food poisoning, but I know I’m not the only parent (and daily packer of school lunches) who heard about this study and, well, scoffed. (Other blasé moms quoted here, for example.) If over 90% of kids are bringing unsafe lunches each and every day, shouldn’t we be seeing a constant epidemic of stomach ailments around the country? A critical piece of the puzzle is missing here, which even the study’s authors acknowledge in their conclusion:
This topic merits more extensive study, that more closely examines the number of foodborne illness cases in preschool aged children who bring lunch from home compared with others who eat school-prepared lunch.
Or put another way, as a pediatrician noted in an MSNBC report:
. . . there is a missing piece: it doesn’t tell you what this does to the relative risk of disease . . . . The risk could be going from one in a million to one in 950,000, or it could be going to one in a thousand. We don’t know.
Right.
To be honest, my real food safety concern in packing my own kids’ lunches has less to do with keeping cold foods cold (surprising, since we live in Houston) and more to do with the hot lunches I sometimes pack in their Thermoses. Those foods do sometimes contain more potentially dangerous ingredients, like meats, and I know for sure that Thermoses rarely live up to their promise of keeping foods piping hot until serving. But do you know what? I’ve been packing those Thermoses since preschool, my oldest is now heading off to middle school, and we have yet to have a single problem. Kina hora. (Non-Jewish readers, see here.)
So while the study does serve as an important reminder about food safety, I just can’t get too excited about it. But maybe I’m being too cavalier? What do all you fellow home-made-lunch-packers think?
Meanwhile, while we’re talking about home-packed lunches, just wanted to mention that Gina of the Feed Our Families blog has posted a fantastic round-up of every kind of kid-safe lunch gear you can imagine, from reusable sandwich bags to entire “lunch box systems.” So as you head out to replace your kids’ lunch box items before school starts in a few weeks, be sure to check it out.
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Bri says
No, you’re not being too blase in my opinion; but I’ve seen a few message boards etc. light up over the past couple of days with people going “Oh! Be careful when you pack lunches! Kids are getting sick!” Which is, of course, misinformation and misplaced hysteria. (Thank you, incomplete study conclusions.) I actually chuckled this morning as I packed my five-year-old’s lunch, which included tunafish AND a dairy-based smoothie, remembering all the thermoses of lukewarm milk, soup of questionable tepidness, and soggy, room-temperature tuna sandwiches I ate in my childhood, all pulled from wrinkled paper bags with no ice packs and no refrigeration!
Lindsay says
I pack my two sons’ lunches everyday and have been doing it for 3 years now. No problems, and I send all kinds of foods – some hot, some cold.
I would risk a home-packed lunch that “might” be unsafe everyday before I would allow my kid to eat what public schools are serving. They are CERTAIN to have health problems now, or later from the sodium-filled selections there.
Waverly says
Yawn…I agree. Fear makes for good headlines; not good stories. What a racket journalism seems to be. My mom packed me pastrami sandwiches for years…no harm ever came to me, and although my children eat turkey or pbj sandwiches, they are all healthy. We cannot live our lives in a sanitary bubble. Where is common sense? Are they trying to persuade us that school lunches are better? GAG!!
Louise Goldberg says
Yes, you are being too blase. Usually small stomach ailments are not tracked and recorded so you really don’t have data to confidently scoff at this information. If this heightens awareness (not hysteria) and means a freezer pack gets added to a lunchbox containing a yogurt cup or deli meat sandwich, is that a bad thing?
Bri says
The problem is, though, that the reporting of this has not been along the lines of “Oh, just put another ice pack in.” In fact, the “Today” Show did a whole segment about it in which nutritionist Ellie Krieger talked about how you CAN’T send yogurt with your kid, and you CAN’T send deli meat with your kid, and instead you should be sending:
1) Nuts. (Unless your school is nut-free. Then you’re up a creek.)
2) Dry cereal.
3) ONLY UNCUT PRODUCE. (So if you have a little kid who has trouble eating produce that hasn’t been cut up, you’re stuck — because Ms. Krieger made sure to say that once you cut into a fruit or vegetable, it becomes a breeding ground for foodborne illness.)
4) PREPACKAGED SHELF-STABLE OPTIONS. Yes, that’s right, processed foods. Now, she did hasten to say that she “wouldn’t recommend” that parents rely solely on Lunchables because of the “sodium content,” but really?
So…now we’re supposed to send processed foods and glorified trail mix with our kids to keep them from being struck down by some mysterious tummy bug. This is nonsense.
Also, I would counter your point by saying: Small tummy bugs may go untracked. It’s true. And while I don’t want to be insensitive or unsympathetic to a child with a foodborne illness, I’m willing to bet most of us had one of those 24-hour “bugs” at least once in our childhood, and while unpleasant, I’m pretty sure we survived. Should we try to avoid these things? Certainly. Unfortunately, as usual, it’s gone too far into the realm of helicoptering our kids, and now a healthy lunch from home is just another way in which they are facing certain doom whenever they leave our sight.
Louise Goldberg says
(Ugh-I echo your sentiments about Ellie’s suggestion at bringing Lunchables. *shudder*) The reality is deli meat and yogurt cups/sticks *are* being sent. Bettina’s question wasn’t-can your kid survive food-borne illness..it was basically do we really need to make a big deal about this study’s results.
I think it’s important to bring a renewed awareness to food safety in packed lunches (or anywhere really-in restaurants, at home, etc). It’s not ok to brush off these results using anecdotal stories..because Mr/Mrs. X has been sending their kid to school w egg salad and no ice packs for 5 years without their individual kid getting sick… I don’t agree with scare tactics. The media present the news in their usual fashion- no big surprise there- but getting the word out is not a bad thing. Smart well informed parents, such as readers of TLT, most likely start off 5 preventive steps ahead of other parents so I can see why in this forum one would feel comfortable being ‘blase’.
Kim M. says
I saw that Today Show segment, too, and Ellie Krieger absolutely DID NOT advise sending Lunchables! In fact, she never even mentioned Lunchables. Dr. Nancy Snyderman is the one who mentioned them and she urged parents not to rely on “prepackaged lunches” (which we all know as Lunchables) because they’re “….loaded with fat, bad foods, and a lot of preservatives.” The segment can be viewed here: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/3041426/ns/today-today_health/#44057317
Karen Frenchy says
Thanks for the link! I understand their point but what annoys me (a lot actually) is the “solutions” they propose (I see it as lunches are not considered as a real meal). I’m sorry but for me, “cereal with milk” is not lunch = it’s breakfast; snap peas and cherry tomatoes are okay but when do our kids eat properly, with a fork, learn table manners? Oh man, I am SO frustrated right now -_-‘
louise Goldberg, RD says
Thanks for the link Kim! I’m so relieved you clarified they DID NOT recommend Lunchables. Phew! The refrigerator/cooler idea seems a bit silly and unrealistic…
If you don’t like their food suggestions, there are tons of other sites with creative solutions. Maybe Bettina has some? 🙂
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Oh, I wish I did. Like I said in the post, I am probably packing lunches that would make a food safety expert a little nervous. Today, e.g., I sent my daughter with a Thermos full of reheated pasta that had dairy in it and I’m sure it will be lukewarm by lunch time. (!) In fact, in light of the fact that my kids generally spurn sandwiches, I often turn to the Thermos and reheated food!
EdT. says
Bettina – this reminds me of Alton Brown and “Good Eats” where the food safety version of the MiB shows up and give him all sorts of grief, probably in cases where risk-averse regulatory types and litigation-nervous lawyers, about things he wants to do (like making hollandaise or even carpaccio.)
~EdT.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Right! Good intentions run amok. . .
Karen Frenchy says
Sorry Kim I’m replying to you but it is for Louise (well, actually for everyone on TLT).
Louise,
Thanks, I have plenty meal plans (some found on the web) and I put extra ice packs in my daughter’s lunchox ^_^
I was upset at their food suggestions because it made me feel they considered lunch just as a “fuel” and forgot that it should be eaten with pleasure also.
I’m sorry, it must a cultural thing… I just know for a fact that my 4 YO daughter won’t eat cereal for lunch and start her lunch with her dessert (yep, one day I left her thermos on the counter and the teachers made her eat her applesauce 1st to give me time to bring her lunch -_- I’m not proud of myself)
Karen Frenchy says
pfff I forgot some words :
“It must BE a cultural thing”
” my daughter WON’T start her lunch with the dessert”
Sorry :p
Kim M. says
Karen, it’s definitely a cultural thing. I understand what you mean about taking pleasure in your lunch and eating a full meal but that’s not the custom here. I’m not saying it’s wrong, it’s just not our custom. I would have liked cereal for lunch occasionally when I was a child. In fact, I occasionally eat a small bowl of cereal with milk for lunch or dinner because sometimes I just don’t have the appetite for more than that but I need to have something.
Karen Frenchy says
I have to admit that before living in the US and before having a kid, packed school lunches were science fiction for me and I would have thought this study was right.
Now that I am a mom who packs her pre-K daughter’s lunch, I’m really annoyed by this kind of studies. I send her to school with hot and/or cold lunches using thermoses, iced packs per compartments etc…
We all are trying to do our best for our children. There’s always someone/something to tell us we’re not doing the right thing, make us feel guilty in some way.
Yes, we should be reminded to maybe put an extra ice pack in the insulated lunch bag (it doesn’t hurt) but I’m interpreting (I may be wrong) these studies like school lunches are “safer” and healthier. (we don’t know where the ingredients come from – see the salmonella outbreak, how the food is handled, stored, prepared etc..)
pffffff I’m so blasée
Kim M. says
Karen, I don’t think the people who conducted this study (or the people who reported it on the Today Show) were trying to make parents feel guilty. The study found that 39% of the lunches they tested did not contain an ice pack. Even though you include ice packs in your daughter’s lunches, it appears that some parents don’t include them. Wouldn’t you want those parents to know that ice packs are a good idea to include?
I also didn’t see or hear any mention of school lunches being better than lunches from home in either the study or in the Today Show piece. I don’t understand why people are reading that into the story.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Let me just chime in here to say that I, too, didn’t sense any sort of conspiracy thing going on here in an effort to get parents to buy school lunch. (And if *I* if all people don’t see a school lunch issue . . . LOL.) Maybe I’m just naive but I took this at face value – a straight food safety study.
Karen says
Kim,
I don’t think this study makes parents feel guilty on purpose. As I said it’s just an interpretation; mine actually. It’s just that we send our kids to school with a lunchbox, assuming we prepared a meal with food our children like, put the ice pack/thermos in the bag. Then a study says we may give them unsafe lunches that could make them sick… As a parent, I could feel guilty in a way or worried.
Knowing some kids don’t have an ice pack in their lunch bags blows my mind and of course I would want parents to put one or two in their kids’ bag. It looks like a lack of common sense or “food education”.
No conspiracy in the Today Show piece but we are allowed to think (in the bigger picture) that if we give our kids unsafe lunches from home that could make them sick (even with the proper equipment), maybe school-lunches are safer. But again, it’s a circle that will never end = how can we be sure that the ingredients we buy are handled properly? Same question for school-lunches (or restaurants etc…) with these outbreaks everywhere (e. coli in the US & Europe), salmonella, broken cold chain etc…
Well, I guess I’m off topic
Karen Frenchy says
it’s my response = I forgot to type my whole name -_-‘
Dale Davidson says
You know, my best guess is that the luke-warm temperatures could allow for food borne illness causing bacteria. But if the bacteria is not there in the first place how can it grow. If we are heating the food to the proper temperature and placing into a sterile container the bacteria cannot spontaneously generate. I think it is a factor in the pre-prepared packaged foods too. Not that they can’t deteriorate at all. It’s just I doubt growth of the bad stuff cannot get up to speed in the time between packing our kids’ lunches and the time they eat it.
Just my thoughts but please someone that knows more negate me.
Melissa House says
Dale, all foods contain the enzymes needed to break down food to decompose. Freezing stops the break down as well as heating. It also depends on the acidity and the protein in the food that cause the enzymes or bacteria to grow at different rates. Foods higher in protein will hurt you faster over tomato sauce. There is a four hour window food is decomposing. A sterile container will still have the same effect. If we eat something 6 hours out of the danger zone, no one will get obviously sick, but still not a good practice, you are putting your body on defense mode, eat it later and later it will. Protein foods are the most critical of them all. Hard for me to explain this in a small amount of time, it is just best to keep cold foods cold and hot hot. Heat food till it reaches 165, pack it in a thermos and your good for 4 hours, pack a school lunch with ice, it will be just as good just as long.
We always eat lunch 4 hours from breakfast as it is. We all know our lunch box will never be 40 degrees, but if it is 60 and you eat it in 4 hours, you will be just fine. This study made me mad too. It was fear factor, not sure why they are placing this fear all of the sudden. No one knows when mom was packing that lunch, over a week time,she sets the ham out over and over again, but by Friday it is now contaminated before it made it into the lunch. The study has to take those danger zones in account, along with the store that had the ham delivered, that may have sat on a loading dock, then on the grocery floor, moved to the rack, all in 4 hours in the safe zone is not likely either.
Meg says
Decomposition does not equal food borne illness. This misunderstanding of microbes causes a lot of unneeded stress and lots of unneeded money spent on refrigeration imo. In almost all instances, the bacteria that breaks down food does not cause illness. Are we going to start putting another burden on schools – refrigerating all sack lunches? Spending thousands of dollars on energy bills because one kid in one instance may eat something that had some bad mayo. Don’t put mayo in your kids lunch if you are concerned. I lived in Kenya and we had exactly one dorm sized fridge for the entire 100 people living in the camp. The electricity was only on for half of the day so the fridge was probably never below 40. We ate meat sometimes. We had eggs stored in an open room for up to a week. We even had cheese sometimes (oh the horrors!). The produce was kept in an insulated, but not cooled, room. Did we get food borne illness? Yes, some people had diarrhea for a couple of days. Clean water was a much bigger issue. Did anyone get seriously ill? No. Do I think we tend to overreact and judge in this country? Absolutely. I learned that this is largely a worry of the rich….nice to be able to worry about whether your kid’s lunch is 38 degrees or 45 degrees when they get around to eating it. To me, it’s just another thing to have to “live up to” to be considered a good mother/father in this country.
Viki says
I call this type of journalism fear mongering. If they only tested temps and not for bacteria then the study itself was flawed. Mild stomach illnesses may be going unreported, but those illnesses may also be causing intelligent parents to put an extra icepack in the lunch box already. This sounds like an attempt to scare parents into second guessing themselves and having their children buy the school lunch instead of bringing their lunch from home.
Kim M. says
In the study, only 40% of the lunches from home had ice packs in them. So I guess that means 60% of that daycare’s parents are unintelligent….just the type of parents you can dupe into second guessing themselves and buying school lunch for their kids merely by publishing a flawed study???
Kim M. says
Correction to the above comment. Thirty-nine percent of lunches had no ice pack. Still, I’m surprised that number was so high.
Bri says
Kim, I think there are a few things that you missed (though I will thank you for clarifying the Lunchable thing. My original comment ascribed the “don’t rely on Lunchables because of the sodium” discussion to Ellie Krieger, which was incorrect; you’re right that it was Nancy Snyderman. Still, i think we both heard that they did say not to send the things). What I heard in watching it was:
1) 39 percent didn’t have ice packs; HOWEVER, many (I don’t know the number) of the lunches were sent to daycares that refrigerate the lunches. Guess what? I never put an ice pack into a lunch that was going into refrigeration. I don’t know if that makes me unintelligent, or just trusting that modern refrigeration techniques are sufficient without an ice pack. (I always do, however, place my children’s lunches into the fridge myself, rather than waiting for someone else to do it.)
2) The study, and the media presentation of it, pointed out quite assiduously that EVEN LUNCHES WITH AN ICE PACK were “unsafe.” Hm. Now, I’ll give the readers here credit for catching the part where they flashed up on the screen a nice graphic stating that you COULD put an extra ice pack or two into the lunch and probably “decrease the risk,” but I think talking about how not even an ice pack, or refrigeration at many day cares, is enough to keep your child from possibly coming down with foodborne illness could be enough to make some less conscious parents throw up their hands in disgust and say “I give up.”
3) Aseptic milk. Tuna in pouches. Boxed granola bars. “Pack your child’s lunch as if you were going hiking” was the recommendation. Um, yuck! Every day, all school year (or all year, if you’re a full-time working parent)? Totally agree with the idea that it cheapens the home-packed lunch and reduces it to an unappetizing and undesirable option. Do I think they did it on purpose? No. But do I think they played directly into the cultural leaning towards processed and pre-packaged foods? Yep.
Dana Woldow says
I just want to say, a million years ago when I packed my very first lunch box for my oldest child’s first day of preschool, I followed the common advice to include a frozen juice box which would keep the whole thing cool yet be thawed enough to drink by lunchtime. My son came home furious that his lunch had included a juice box which was still frozen solid at lunchtime and was undrinkable.
Bri says
HAHA Dana! That’s outstanding. (Especially since now, you’d be chided for including a juice box at all — “empty calories and too much sugar!”) I actually wondered this morning, as I put my toddler’s frozen berries into his lunchbox…”Do these things thaw in time?” Guess I’ll have to ask the teachers!
Kim M. says
I love to eat frozen berries in the summer! They’re like itty bitty popsicles. I also love frozen cherries, grapes, and peach slices. I’m not sure how a toddler would do with them, though. Might be too much for their young, sensitive mouths.
Torie says
One small way to avoid some of the (potential?) issues is to pack vegetarian.
Tari says
It doesn’t sound like anything to cause me to worry enough to stop packing lunches, especially when I see those pizza/smoothie/burger windows at my older son’s new middle school. I’ll take the risk his PB&J has germs in it any day, rather than set him loose in the caf with money and a weak promise to “buy the school meal and not pizza, honest, mom”. 🙂
We get about 1 stomach bug in the house every 18 months or so, and they are always passed around the among the 4 of us serially, making me fairly sure they are a “bug” and not food poisoning. I guess my lunches must be safe, then.
Kim M. says
PB&J’s don’t need to be refrigerated.
anthony says
it’s hard to take something like this as being a grave matter when decades and decaded upon decades have passed with school kids (us included) taking lunch without incident. the empiricism denies the alarm.
EdT. says
The conspiracy theorist living inside my brain says we can expect to see more of this type of “journalism”, followed by calls on the school officials to DO SOMETHING because IT IS FOR THE CHILDREN’S SAFETY and IF WE LET THE PARENTS SEND LUNCHES TO SCHOOL THEN CHILDREN WILL DIE!!!!!!!! (note the many, many exclamation points – that means this is a REALLY IMPORTANT POINT Y’ALL), followed by local school officials implementing policies to BAN CHILDREN FROM EATING FOOD BROUGHT IN FROM “OUTSIDE” and mandate that they eat, instead, the lunch provided by the school. Because, after all they are doing this FOR THE CHILDREN.
As far as Ellie Krieger goes, her credibility flew out the window when I started watching her show on FN. There is another one, Robin Miller, who is even worse: she advocates that people refrain from washing RAWR CHICKEN before cooking it, saying that there is no need for it! What we need, me thinks, is fewer such “experts”.
BTW, I have heard some child-care heretics saying that maybe we shouldn’t be insulating our children from all risk the way we are. Park the helicopters, and let them go outside and play (in the dirt, even!) I think that might just apply in this case: children develop resistance to bad biologicals in part by being exposed to them, so maybe all those bologna and cheese sandwiches I took to school as a kid helped keep me from having to be spoon-fed a diet of sterile Pablum the rest of my life, eh?
~EdT.
Kim M. says
What is with all the animosity toward Ellie Krieger? She’s not my friend or my hero or anything but why are people on this blog so hostile toward her? I think she had some pretty good suggestions in that Today Show segment.
And as for the paranoia that someone rigged this study to get parents to buy school lunch for their kids, this is a daycare. It might not even offer school lunch (I also realize that it very well may offer it and it may even be subsidized). I’m surprised by how much people seem to be reading into this study. The people who conducted it stated that it wasn’t perfect and more studies–and better ones–need to be done.
What is the harm in reminding parents that they need to be mindful of keeping certain foods cold when they pack their kids’ lunches?
Kelly Lester says
I’ve been packing my children’s lunches for about 15 years. That’s a lot of lunches. Mostly made the night before, stored in the fridge till morning and out the door in a cooler with one ice block in each, even in the hot Los Angeles summer. I’ve sent yogurt, meats, chicken, cheese, you name it. My girls are all healthy and well and most if their illnesses have been colds and such. Most upset stomachs usually come after eating too much junk food or within an hour of eating out at a restaurant 🙁 I think I’ll stick with what works. Oh, and when I was in school 100 years ago, I took cheese sandwiches in a paper bag with NO ice block. I received an award for perfect attendance for 3 years straight in Jr. High so you can see how often my “warm” lunch must have made me sick.
Kim M. says
“Mostly made the night before, stored in the fridge till morning…..”
I think that’s exactly the step many parents aren’t using when they pack their kids’ lunches. The prep them in the morning and the food is not fully chilled when they put it in the lunch bag. There’s no way an ice pack is going to bring the food temp down to 40 degrees. It will only slow down the process of food warming up to room temp. I was disappointed that the Today Show segment (and other news reports) seem to have missed this concept altogether.
Not all bacteria will make your digestive system sick shortly after you consume it. It can take up to a week for it to make you sick. So if you eat something and don’t get sick right away, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the food wasn’t contaminated or that it won’t make you sick a few days after eating it.
Bri says
Ya know…I’m commenting all over this thing, and suddenly I have to stop and wonder. Kim M. has a point. Why are we so het up about this? (Not that I’m actually personally EMOTIONALLY invested in it — I just like good fodder for a debate. I’m not losing sleep over it.) 🙂 I really wanted to not write another blog post that responds to the goings-on over here at TLT, because I don’t want to make my bloggy name off of Bettina’s venerable coattails, but I think I may have to write a little something about just why — despite the fact that it’s probably no big deal — people are kind of irritated when stuff like this comes out. Hm.
Viki says
Bri, I think people get kind of irritated when stuff like this comes out because it is kind of a slap at parenting. “Look parents don’t even know how to pack safe lunches for their kids”
Okay, maybe some parents don’t know how to pack safe lunches…but really, not that many. Some pack overly processed junk food because it is easy and doesn’t need an icepack because it’s shelf life is so long. Others pack truely good lunches that their kids actually eat. Most fall in the middle probably.
I work in a preschool/MDO. Every year at visitation day before the school starts I am required to go over the handbook with the parents. I give out handouts on healthy brain foods(Dr Sears site), I ask them to send an extra cup or bottle of water(PLEASE!). We talk about keeping foods COLD. That we do have a microwave if something needs to be heated.
I try to do this in a friendly way that does not seem as if I am talking down to the parents. I don’t want them to think that I’m taking a stab at their parenting. (For some it is the first time their child will be going to a program where they will have to pack a lunch,where the kids will be without mommy for several hours or even be with a group of other kids.) It is just something my director has the teachers do and it isn’t all about Lunches there are many other things in the handbook that I go over, but Lunch is an important one.
In the end, they send what they send and I check every lunch box as it comes in and put cups with milk in the tiny fridge and whole lunches if there is no freezer pack or if a mother says “oh I packed yogurt today can you please put it in the fridge?” It is what I do. I keep a few extra cups in the cupboard for those that don’t pack the extra water.
I may be the only teacher that does this, but I doubt it.
Nicole says
I saw many lunches that had a well balanced meal of squeezable yogurt, string cheese and those little round cheeses wrapped in wax. Shudder…. I also saw tons of 100 calorie packs as entire lunches.
As a teacher I was always so distressed by the food that I forgot to check if it was cold enough.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Oh, please, Bri, do it! I love when you follow up and make all sorts of excellent points I totally missed.
Bri says
HAHAHAHA Well, if you insist! Not tonight, though — we’ve got a date with our kids! But soon!
Justin Gagnon says
I’m lamenting the fact that I was out of the office yesterday and missed this entire dialogue!
What’s funny about this is that mom’s have the option to scoff at this and disregard. Foodservice providers, on the other hand, are strictly held to these food safety basics, and required to develop rigid temperature control processes and extensive temperature logging. If you cannot prove that your food has been under strict temperature control and within guidelines and a health inspector shows up, you have to throw all of it out.
I’m not arguing one way or the other as to whether moms should heed the same strict standards that are mandatory for food companies, but it’s interesting to note that the double standard exists. That amount of waste generated by these regulations is also of note. What happens to the leftover meals at the end of the lunch period? Can you give them to an after school program? Or maybe donate them to shelter? Nope. Most shelters won’t accept is because they aren’t allowed to accept the liability, and after school programs can’t use it because it’s been out of temperature control for too long at that point.
Quality is also impacted, and especially with cold meals. Have you ever tried eating turkey pesto ciabatta sandwich that’s been held below 41 degrees until the time of service? Ciabatta and other breads simply are not as good when they’re held this cold. But rules are rules.
Food safety concerns are one of the major issues that drive schools AWAY from fresh, scratch cooking. Is your school preparing chicken from a raw state? Highly unlikely, as the poultry is one of the biggest points of concern in food safety. It’s much “safer” to rely on Tyson to ship you a frozen, fully cooked product that to take on the liability of your staff handling raw chicken and dealing with temperature control issues and cross-contamination. Any fruits and vegetables that are cut, and therefore “processed”, are considered potentially hazardous as soon as you run the knife through them (particularly melons). Why would a district take that “risk” and then have to keep the fruit under temperature control when they can just as easy put out a shelf stable fruit cut that meets the USDA fruit requirement without the labor to process the fruit, the liability of the employee handling a knife, the complexity of temperature control, and the perishablity of fresh fruit in the first place? A fruit cup is much easier, and safer! (Please note the sarcasm.)
Moms have the option of disregarding this as fear mongering and not complying. Schools and foodservice chefs do not have that luxury. Most people don’t realize it, but the impact of “food safety” regulations on the industrialization of school food cannot be overstated.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Justin:
As always, your food service perspective is SO interesting to me.
I was already familiar with a lot of this – for example, in HISD we wanted to donate the zillions of unopened milk cartons discarded by kids from our breakfast program (not OVS), and the issue of maintaing consistent temperature prevented us from doing so. And this explains why sandwiches, especially when prepared in advance, are just blech.
One advantage of our central kitchen is that there is more comfort using raw proteins than there would be if each school were preparing it from scratch. There’s more oversight and better trained personnel.
Thanks as always for your interesting comments here.
Justin Gagnon says
I figured you’d be familiar with it…you definitely know more than the average parent about the ins and outs of foodservice operations!
Bettina Elias Siegel says
That might be a polite way of saying I’m a little crazy! LOL. 🙂
Justin Gagnon says
Not crazy, just well informed 😉
EdT. says
Justin – good points. I would like to point out that the concerns you state regarding food safety drove, to a large extent, my father’s policy of eating fast food when we were on the road during vacation season. While he readily admitted it wasn’t as nutritious (nor as tasty) as scratch-prepared food in a Mom-and-Pop operation, the adherence to standards meant it was less likely we would contract diarrhea (which was one of his biggest fears – may have had something to do with his service overseas just after WWII.) It is also the reason he INSISTED we drink Coca-Cola, rather than local sodas, milk, or (HEAVEN FORBID) water!
Sometimes, the road to obesity is paved with the best of intentions (remembering that diarrhea was, and still is, a common cause of serious illness/death among children – though in the USofA, not so much as it used to be.)
~EdT.
Justin Gagnon says
Ed – I had never thought about that on road trips! Very interesting perspective, and especially on milk. It’s funny how “processed” food is regarded as “safe” in the immediate term, but can be harmful in so many ways with repeated exposure…
EdT. says
In all fairness, I grew up in the ’60s, and so I suspect my parents didn’t have the information on near-vs-long term effects of the foods we eat that we do now. On the other hand, if you see your combat-mates suffer from dysentery (or, even worse, go through a bout or six yourself), you learn very quickly that diarrhea is something to be avoided at all costs. Especially when you have 4 kids in the car with you.
~EdT.
Kim M. says
Interesting. I usually get diarrhea if I eat fast food. Coca-cola especially gives me the runs.
Jennifer I says
These stories actually made me think, “aha!” My family with two young boys, now six and four, experiences an inordinate amount of these 24 hour tummy bugs. I haven’t been thinking, “oh, now I can’t pack lunches”, now I’m trying to figure out how I can keep the items cold until lunch. That seems to be the better solution, although the products don’t seem to be designed to do it. I’m going to try a surgical ice pack that keep things super cold, see how that goes.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Jennifer – never heard of a surgical ice pack. What’s that about?