You might have the good intention but when they get to school, it's suddenly lost
Packing a healthy, balanced lunch for your child each day when going to school may be causing more harm than you are actually aware of.
A US study found that fewer than two per cent of 700 preschoolers' lunches were cool enough to be safe to eat.
The study was carried out by doctoral student, Fawaz Almansour at the University of Texas in Austin. He checked the safety of the children's food about 90 minutes before they ate it.
"It was a shock when we discovered that more than 90 per cent of the perishable items in these packed lunches were kept at unsafe temperatures," Almansour told Reuters.
He said that the study had been an 'eye-opener' and 'it shows there is a problem', recommending that lunches be packed with lots of ice packs and refrigerated once the children arrive at school.
Femalefirst Taryn Davies