How to Keep Lunch Boxes Cold?

While packing my daughter's lunch for school today, I noticed it is essential to keep the food inside a lunch box free from harmful bacteria and other micro organisms. This is especially important for children under the age of 5 or 6 because they are at a higher risk for food born illness. In old days it was difficult to keep the food fresh and cool. Now there are freezers or ice packs that can be used to keep the food fresh for several hours. Some foods like meat, cut fruits and vegetables, milk, pasta salad and yogurt need to be kept in cool; otherwise there is risk of contamination by bacteria and other organisms. Therefore when packing these cold foods in a lunch box, it is important to keep it cool by suitable methods.

One method of keeping the lunch box cold is to use an insulated lunch box. These are usually made up of durable nylon. It can keep the cold food for several hours.

There are freezer gel packs available in the market to keep the lunch boxes cold for many hours. The freezer gel pack usually contains a mix of water and alcohol in a definite proportion. The freezer gel packs are not recommended for all day storage.

The next is to keep ice packs inside the lunch box. Ice pack contains purified clear water which will be kept in the freezer overnight. In the morning, it is dropped in the lunch box along with the food. It will keep everything in the lunch box cold for a long time.

If ice packs are costly or not available, an alternate method is to use cold bottles. For this, find a non carbonated beverage which is sealed. After opening the seal just remove a small portion of the beverage to allow the expansion of the freezing beverage in the bottle. It is then placed in the freezer overnight. In the morning keep the frozen beverage bottle in the lunch box or lunch bag. All other foods remain cold till the lunch time and it is safe to eat such foods.

The above methods are recommended when no freezer or cold storage system is available to keep lunch boxes cold. If there is a refrigerator, the lunch boxes can be placed inside it to eat the foods safely. Also it is better to keep the lunch box out of direct sunlight.

Happy, healthy eating everyone!