Most Packed Lunches at Unsafe Temps

According to a recent research from the University of Texas, the lunches in most preschoolers lunchboxes  reach potentially unsafe temperatures by the time kids eat them, even if an ice-pack was included. That could result in foodborne illness.

Ninety percent of the 705-preschooler sack lunches tested by University of Texas scientists had risen to temperatures considered too high to prevent the growth of bacteria, the researchers reported Monday in the journal Pediatrics. Unsafe,  as the researchers defined it, was anything that sat for more than two hours between 39 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit. But that doesn't mean kids are actually getting sick.  The researchers testes lunch temperatures at nine Texas daycare centers and hour and a half before the food was consumers. Of the 705 lunches testes, 39 percent had no ice packs and 45 percent had at least one. About 82% were at room temperature by the time they were tested. Less than 2 percent of the perishable items tested were in the "safe" range.

Source: msnbc.com