Food - Drink
How To Make Sure Your School Lunches Stay Cold Without An Icepack
By KATHERINE BECK
Keeping school lunches cold, especially if they contain perishable items like dairy and meat, is a concern for every parent. No one wants their child to get sick, but no one wants their kid to accidentally dump an expensive ice pack into the cafeteria trash bin, either; luckily, there's an easy and cost-free way to keep packed lunches cold.
Instead of buying ice packs, try placing a frozen beverage on top of perishable items in your child's lunch box. A frozen juice box or bottle of water will keep the food items cold, and by lunch time, the beverage should be defrosted and ready to drink; plus, science suggests that this method is safer and more effective than using an ice pack.
According to a study by the NSW Food Authority, a lunch box packed with a frozen drink and left to sit for five hours had a low amount of bacterial growth compared to a lunch with an ice pack that sat out for the same amount of time. In fact, the lunch with the ice pack had 10 times the amount of bacteria it contained when it was packed.