Keeping your child's lunch cool

As parents start their back to school shopping, one important item on the list should be an insulated lunch bag.  A recent study in the journal Pediatrics found that more than 90% of perishable items in lunches reached an unsafe temperature.  In fact, the average temperature found by researchers in these school lunches was 62 degrees, more than 20 degrees above what is considered an unsafe temperature for perishable foods (such as milk, meat, and sliced fruits).

Some helpful hints for keeping your child's lunch cold:
-  use an insulated lunch box
-  use an ice pack (or two if space permits)
-  freeze items whenever possible (putting water or juice in the freezer the night before can act as another ice pack and help keep the entire lunch cold).
-  keep as many items cold as possible, even if they don't have to be (ie. apples and oranges)