GREENSBORO, N.C. — As we get ready to head back to school soon, and you start packing those school lunches again, the USDA wants to remind you that you only have two hours after taking the food out of the fridge before it starts to go bad.
“We recommend that food does not stay out at room temperature for more than two hours because unhealthy levels of bacteria start to build up and multiply and that gets us sick.,” said Jesse Garcia with the USDA. “We need to stop using those paper bags and other things that we usually take to school lunch, an insulated bag will keep food chilled at 40 degrees or below.”
While insulated lunch bags are great, you also to put cold sources in them. The USDA recommends at least two frozen items.
“We recommend 2 water bottles, frozen bottles, two juice boxes, two frozen gel packs to make sure that the temperature in that bag stays at 40 degrees or below,” Garcia said.
The two frozen juice boxes is an easy low cost tip. If that's too bulky, Food and Wine did a lot of testing and recommended thin ice packs for lunch boxes. There are several brands to choose from online. And you can get four of them for less than $10 on Amazon. Just search for lunch box ice packs.
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