Do children get food poisioning from packed lunches?

[Nikia]

My mother insisted that my sister and I buy lunches so it was rare that we ever packed lunch. Many of my classmates packed their lunches though. Their lunches often included a lunch meat sandwich. Their lunch containers were usually kept in their lockers without the use of coolents. Our school was not air conditioned and on the worst days at the beginning and end of the year it was in the 80's. It was usually 3-4 hours between the time that they got to school and when they ate lunch. A few kids could not finish their lunch in the allotted time and ate the remainder after school. As far as I know, meat should not be unrefridgerated for more than 2 hours.
Do many children get food poisioning from this school lunch practice?

[Texasgal]

1. I never did...

And I always had mayo and ham sammiches in my lunch box!

[Nicole]

3. same here

Plus a LOT of tuna salad. I never got sick.

[Whoa_Nelly]

2. As a retired teacher, can say

No. Have never seen a child become ill/get food poisoning from a meat sandwich. However, if there is mayo on or in it, THAT can cause food poisoning, I suppose. But cannot recall a single incidence of food poisoning in all the 25+ years I worked in the school system.

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. Yeah me neither

I have seen the kids get sick from the school lunch, but not from a sack lunch.

[Omphaloskepsis]

4. I never got sick from mine..

And my sandwich always had miracle whip on it. MaMa was white trash.

[Left Is Write]

5. I almost always brought my lunch.

I never got sick.

[fortyfeetunder]

6. Didn't have that problem

What I do for my kid's lunch is freeze the beverage for a few hours and use that in the lunch sack so it provides some cooling for the other food.

[Nikia]

8. That's a good idea

I've always liked slushy drinks anyway.

[Nikia]

7. I'm glad to hear that kids aren't getting sick

It has just been something that I have thought about. I'm glad that the practice of packing school lunches does appear to be safe. When I have kids, I won't feel uneasy about packing them lunches.
I'll still put the lunches that I bring to work in the refridgerator though.

[mzteris]

12. You can get freezer packs

little ones to pop into the lunchbox. They even come in shapes like a football, cookie, soccerball, etc. I have several I rotate so one is always frozen and ready to go.

[xmclt]

10. Consider This: Lead in Vinyl Lunch boxes

I recently heard that vinyl lunch boxes can have lead in them. It has been suggested that testing the lunch box can be done by using a common lead test kit from your local hardware store.

http://www.cehca.org/lunchboxes.htm

[salin]

11. always had pb&j

or pb and 'marshmellow fluff' (why in the world did we think that was a good idea for kids in the middle of a school day - or anytime at all, beyond me now - but I loved those sandwhiches as a kid.)