What a Food-Safety Pro Wishes You Knew About Packing Your Lunch — Lunch Box Heroes

Packing my daughter's lunch is certainly a chore, and sometimes a straight-up struggle. Trying to keep that lunch bag filled with nutritious foods that she will actually eat — especially for a girl who doesn't want to eat the same thing every day — is a continuing challenge. Then beyond that, I worry about food safety.

About four hours go by between the moment she heads out to the bus to when she opens her lunch pack, which is plenty of time for finicky perishable foods — like lunch meat or cut fruit — to get a little too warm for my comfort zone. In pre-k, the classes were small enough that they had a little fridge for the kids, but now that she's in big girl elementary school, that lunch bag is destined for an un-cool cubby.

So I reached out to Tamika Sims, PhD, director of food technology communications for the International Food Information Council Foundation, to see whether my worries had any grounds or were just paranoia. In short: Yes, this is a real risk.

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