Due to their high sodium content, Consumer Reports has petitioned the USDA to have school lunchables removed from the school meal program.
A consumer advocacy group issued a warning on Tuesday about the high sodium content of the popular kids grocery store snack kit Lunchables, which is sold in school cafeterias.
Last year, Lunchables created two new snack kit types expressly to be offered across the country as a component of school lunch programs.
However, a recent study by Consumer Reports evaluated the nutritional profiles of two Lunchables kits that are distributed in schools and discovered that the school-provided kits have even higher sodium content than the kits that are available for purchase.
The store-bought lunch and snack packages that Consumer Reports tested had sodium levels ranging from 460 to 740 milligrams per serving, or “nearly a quarter to half of a child’s daily recommended limit for sodium.”
The study discovered that the school versions of Lunchables with turkey and cheddar had 930 mg of salt, while the store-bought version had 740 mg.
In a test of 12 store-bought lunchables and comparable ready-to-eat meal kits, including those from Armour Lunch Makers, Good & Gather, Greenfield Natural Meat Co., and Oscar Mayer, Consumer Reports reported that lead, cadmium, or both were present in all of the kits, though none of them went over any federal limit. The other lunch boxes’ elevated salt content was also discovered during testing.
The World Health Organization states that renal, bone, and cancer diseases have been associated with cadmium.Heavy metals like lead and cadmium are naturally occurring substances found in crop soil and therefore cannot be completely avoided. However, some agricultural areas and regions have higher levels of toxicity than others, in part because of persistent industrial pollution and the overuse of pesticides that include metals.
However, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state that there is no acceptable level of lead for children.
Because lead bioaccumulates in the body over time and stays there, even at very low levels, prolonged exposure to lead can be harmful.
Compared to adults, children, especially newborns, are more susceptible to the negative health effects of even tiny amounts of lead exposure.
With the exception of Lunchables Extra Cheesy Pizza, Consumer Reports’ tests revealed the presence of at least one phthalate or phthalate replacement chemical in each box they examined. Even in small doses, lead and cadmium can eventually cause developmental issues in children.
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