According to a study conducted by Innovate Services Ltd, an operator for catering facilities in the education sector, only seven percent of the packed lunches in the study met the required standards for school meals. The Lunch Box Amnesty is a study which examined the contents of pupil’s lunch boxes, from a nutritional point of view and to look at the contents from a health and safety standpoint.

The research took place with 120 pupils from four secondary schools, year seven and eight students. From these pupils, 70 lunches were available for study on a nutritional basis. Out of these lunch boxes, 49 were examined from the perspective of food hygiene and safety. Questionnaires were also distributed to 80 students to discover their own view of packed lunches. A leading expert in food safety in the UK, Professor Lisa Ackerley analysed 49 samples of food from the packed lunches and discovered that 41 percent were not satisfactory or were borderline when considering the presence of micro-organisms which are potentially harmful. One sample contained E.coli and two samples tested positive for Staphylococcus.

Most of the packed lunches contained at least one type of food or drink that isn’t permitted under current nutrition guidelines. Less than a quarter contained the required minimum of two helpings of vegetables or fruit. The study concludes that school meals provide nutritious food which is stored in a hygienic environment. The hygiene of a packed lunch may be improved considerably using sandwich packaging to separate foods and protect from contaminants from a student’s school bag.