Keeping packed lunches safe to eat

[randommangoandpear]

I’m pregnant and have become really funny about food storage and temps etc. When DS had to take one to nursery it’s always hummus sandwiches and fruit, never pasta or meats.

I won’t do many things like leave cooked pasta out at room temp, make chicken sandwiches for a packed lunch etc

I’ve just bought some ice blocks, mainly for my 3 year old, and I’m hoping this will be a game changer.

Thing is, on non nursery days we normally leave the house around 9ish so meats and perishable foods would be in a cool bag with an ice clock for a potential 4 hours. The thought of this gives me the fear.

Will this be ok, especially in this heat?

freeze sandwiches and a pot of yoghurt before you set out.

tbh for dc we never used ice blocks as the use up so much space in the lunch bag. and tend to get lost in a busy school.

I don’t think it’s normal to be this worried about it. An ice block is a good addition but it’s already in a cool bag.

We all survived through our childhood of packed lunch in a plastic Rainbow Bright or He-Man non thermal lunch box with chicken or ham sandwiches that had been left in the corner of the classroom for 6 hours before being eaten.

Ice blocks will do the job to keep everything nice and cool, you could also freeze yoghurt tubes. Neither is 'necessary' though, your packed lunch would be fine without them.

I went to school in the 80s and 90s. My mum didn't GAF and I got warm sandwiches! 😖

I have a thin silver sandwich bag ice block. I have a silver lined sandwich bag. The sandwiches are still ok after six hours.

I would also try and seek advice for your anxiety.

Chill. Literally. Hundreds of thousands of children take packed lunches to school every day. I bet half of these don’t have an ice block in them and very few schools have the capacity to store the lunch boxes somewhere cool.
If you’re really that worried, just don’t pack meat or dairy.

You wouldn’t leave a cooked chicken dish out in the kitchen for more than an hour or 2, especially in this weather, so what’s the difference with a packed chicken sandwich?

You need to work on this anxiety of yours.

Sandwiches and chicken that's been out of the fridge for a couple of hours won't kill you. I am also older and a survivor of school packed lunches no insulation unrefrigerated for several hours before eating because that's how it was back in the 1970's.

Ice block in a cool lunch bag will be absolutely fine.

I certainly wouldn't eat chicken that's been out of the fridge for a couple of hours in this weather unless it has been on a cool bag.

Thing is, on non nursery days we normally leave the house around 9ish so meats and perishable foods would be in a cool bag with an ice clock for a potential 4 hours. The thought of this gives me the fear.

I have pretty severe emetophobia (fear of vomiting) so am extremely cautious with food. But something taken from the fridge, and put in a cool bag with an ice block for a few hours wouldn't bother me at all.

Remember to put the ice on top of the food, not under - cold sinks. Also you could freeze a frube, or carton of juice.

Or a bottle of water.

I have an array of packing up stuff, one box has a bottle you can snap in to so it doesn't move and it can be frozen.

I don't put chicken in a packed lunch, or rice. Just seems sensible.

But ham, hard cheese, sausage, peanut butter, hummus etc is fine with an ice pack. Also pasta will be fine.

When the kids were small I always kept frozen Frubes or similar in the freezer and put one of those in their lunch boxes. Acted like an ice block, but melted enough by lunchtime to eat.

My SIL is like you OP. She won't even drive from her house to ours with milk in the car (less than an hour away) in case it poisons us al - despite people in rural areas sometimes having a similar time in the car with their full weekly food shop.

Over the last few years she is getting worse and we had a holiday together early this year and not only did we have to eat cold sandwiches that had been sitting next to an ice block, at the end of every meal at the holiday home she swept everything straight into the bin - such a waste.

She probably thinks my hygiene is terrible by comparison but it's exhausting to be around.

My kids went to school in a hot country (in the summer). There was some air con, but definitely the packed lunches weren’t refrigerated.

Cool bag lunch boxes and ice blocks were the norm. There never seemed to be any issues. The problem with freezing drinks is that it can be still frozen when they come to drink them. Yoghurt is good to freeze though

I bought my son a PACKIT lunch bag, look it up they are great.

You need to play with the timings, but in a HOT country, I used to send the kids to school with a frozen juice carton. They needed to be put into the freezer on a Friday night (a weeks worth) then moved to the fridge at bed time eah day. Then into the insulated lunch box at 6.30 am, to have them cold but melted at lunch time. Straight from the freezer meant they were still frozen at lunch time.
We also used to pack fridge and freezer shopping into a cool bag with iceblocks.
It was all fine.

I put the filled lunchbox and cool bag in the fridge overnight so they start off nice and cold, then tuck in an ice pack or frozen bottle of water to keep them cool during the day. Always feels cool when it's time to open it.

I'm pretty funny about this kind of thing too (the opposite to my husband who will regularly just make himself a pan of something and then keep eating out of it for days 🤢🤢🤢).

I'm happy with a cool bag with ice packs though. I've been spending a lot of days out and about these last few weeks with my daughter and taking a little coolbag with an ice pack in and I've been really surprised to find that the bag is still pretty cool inside even at the end of the day!

I'm more cautious than most re food poisoning after a bad experience but even so I just stick a freezer block in DD's lunchbag for school and I'm satisfied with that.

If we're on a day out and carrying a picnic I might not want the weight of a cool block so I make sandwiches using frozen bread which helps to keep the filling cool enough that I'm not worried about it (it's also much easier spreading butter on frozen bread!).

I wouldn’t even think twice of this. I’ve never had food poisoning. Sorry but I think you need you to seek support for anxiety, this isn’t normal

I wouldn't use cooked chicken at the moment but think everything else is ok. Don't see an issue with cooked pasta!

A cooked chicken dish? I definitely would. Most people would.

Would I eat raw chicken that’s been left out for a couple of hours - in a warm kitchen or car boot? No.

The chicken sandwich will be fine. Freeze a juice box or water bottle alongside it if you are worried

@Suprima definitely not. Cooked meat shouldn’t be left at room temp for longer than 2 hours, 1 hour at higher temps.