Brown Bag Lunches – Do’s and Don’ts

The brown bag lunch represents a gold standard in lunches. This standard was good enough for kids and adults alike for a long time. Brown bag lunches are making their way back into the mainstream. They are economical, practical, and provide a wealth of choices for lunchtime eating.

What is it about the brown bag lunch that we like so much? Is it the convenience that we are attracted to? For this reason, brown bag lunches need to provide a fantastic lunch meal with safety in mind.

Brown bag lunches are traditionally not insulated in any way. Of course if you put an ice pack in the brown bag it will make the bag soggy and your food will fall out. An insulated bag can be substituted but if you want to use paper bags, be sure that the items inside do not need to be refrigerated.

One way to do it is to avoid using mayonnaise. Mayonnaise needs to be kept cold to avoid spoiling. Now, it may not go bad from breakfast to lunchtime but better to be safe than sorry. If the temperature rises on a hot day, the chicken salad sandwich could become the ptomaine treat of the day.

Most people like their sandwiches fresh and tasty. Adding condiments and wet items to a sandwich in the morning can mean soggy wet bread by lunchtime. No one will eat that. Using a sectioned lunch container keeps that from happening. Put the lunchmeat in one section and the bread in another.

A bulk shopping warehouse sells pre-packaged condiments that are perfect for a child’s lunch. What they don’t use can be shared or kept for another day. It limits waste and illness from condiments gone bad. If kids must have mayonnaise or maybe you do, this is the safest way.

Provide plastic utensils and napkins with lunch. Plastic utensils can be thrown away after lunch. If the sandwich that day is something particularly messy, insert a packaged wet napkin to clean sticky hands.

Fix brown bag lunches the night before. The food inside gets an entire night to stay cold before it goes to school or to work. This is more important for school children because they don’t have refrigeration for their lunches. At work, there is probably a refrigerator in the lunchroom.

Protect your lunch with proper refrigeration, avoiding soggy sandwiches, and limiting the amount of items that need to be kept cold. Brown bag lunches can be healthy and fun as long as they are kept safe.

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