Packed lunches, no fridge ideas

pigpen

I've never seen lunches in the sun.. they are kept in a box under a table or on a rack in the hall at our school.

I used to freeze juices and frube things. sandwiches were made the night before and refridgerated overnight. fruit and biscuits etc were added in the mornings.

LilacPixie

The frozen things I use are blue not foil.

ailuro2

I NEVER freeze cold meat! It's not recommended afaik!

We make sure the sandwich contents are fresh and put them in an insulated bag with a drink straight from the fridge, and DD is never ill... she has ham, roast chicken, cheese with no ill effects.

I take ham or cheese spread most days. Not very exciting.:)

liney

Refridgerate the sandwiches overnight, and they will leave the house cold meaning they won't "warm up" as fast, and will stay colder using a cool block. Unless it's the middle if summer it's really not an issue for me though.

esmf73

I make the sandwiches fresh every morning, but wrap in cling film and then put a frozen frube and a frozen cake in the sandwich bag with them. This plus a drink of cold water helps keep them cool. They're certainly not edible by the time my little terrors bring their leftovers home!!!

heretolearn_2

Millions of kids eat/have eaten packed lunches that have been out of the fridge for a few hours. I've not heard of any of them dying yet from lunch-related lurgies. Yes, you are being daft. ;-)

HappyMJ

ailuro2 wrote: »

I NEVER freeze cold meat! It's not recommended afaik!

I NEVER freeze meat straight out of the oven....I always let it go cold first then freeze it. If you are talking about sliced meats such as ham there's no problem just don't microwave it to separate the slices then put the warm slices back. Much easier to put the slices onto the bread first then freeze the sandwiches.

Agree with everyone else. If the kids don't like defrosted sandwiches then freeze something else like the frubes or the yoghurt and that'll keep the sandwiches cold.

Oldernotwiser

Nobody would ever have had picnics in the past if you couldn't eat sandwiches that were made a few hours earlier. I think you're (all) being silly.

Mrs_pbradley936

I think professional caterers leave things at room temperature for up to 4 hours. Any longer than that and a buffet has to be cleared. I have never taken the temperature of a lunch box with a cool pack but since there are not regular outbreaks of food poisoning in the press I expect they are safe for the majority.

LittleTinker

ailuro2 wrote: »

I NEVER freeze cold meat! It's not recommended afaik!

You can buy HAM and pineapple pizza, frozen CHICKEN or BEEF dinners etc.

You can freeze anything you like......freezing doesnt do anything untoward to food other than make it very cold. It doesnt change the composition of it or anything like that.......the worst thing that can happen is that the quality will be slightly impaired.

You can freeze, refreeze and freeze again. You can freeze a chicken, defrost a chicken and then freeze it again.....no problem whatsoever..........the problems occur when the food is taken OUT of the freezer because so many people dont know how to handle frozen food properly. Its the defrosting of the chicken that causes the problems.............but so long as it is defrosted in the fridge, there is no reason why you cant refreeze it again other than impaired quality.