This story makes me really, really angry. Consumer Reports, which is an independent, nonprofit org, has found that Lunchables contain “relatively high levels” of lead, cadmium, and sodium. The sodium levels were almost one half of the daily recommended limit for a child. That’s pretty worrisome, but the amount of lead and phthalates (a chemical used with plastics) is absolutely terrifying. My kids don’t eat Lunchables on the regular, but they do eat them from time-to-time as a special treat. CR’s findings are so troublesome that the organization is trying to get Lunchables removed from the National School Lunch Program.
Consumer Reports is calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to remove Lunchables and similar lunch kits from the National School Lunch Program. The organization made the announcement on April 9 after a test of 12 store-bought versions of Lunchables and similar lunch and snack kits found “relatively high levels” of lead, cadmium and sodium. The sodium levels in the kits reportedly ranged from 460 to 740 milligrams per serving — nearly a quarter to half of a child’s daily recommended limit.
Additionally, all but one of the kits contain harmful phthalates, a group of chemicals found in plastics that the National Institute of Health states is “detrimental to human health” and can lead to reproductive problems, diabetes, obesity, certain types of cancer and more. A spokesperson for Kraft Heinz, maker of Lunchables, tells PEOPLE that the company has “taken great steps to improve the nutrition profile of Lunchables,” including reducing the sodium in all Lunchables crackers by 26%.
“All our foods meet strict safety standards that we happily feed to our own families. We are proud of Lunchables and stand by the quality and integrity that goes into making them,” the spokesperson said. “According to current science, processed foods arbitrarily classified as ‘ultra-processed’ are not necessarily less nutritious. In fact, many processed foods contain added nutrients, providing even more benefits to the consumer. The classification of foods should be based on scientific evidence that includes an assessment of the nutritional value of the whole product, not restricted to one element such as a single ingredient or the level of processing.”
Along with Lunchables, CR’s test also included kits from Armour LunchMakers, Good & Gather, Greenfield Natural Meat Co., and Oscar Mayer. CR has since launched a petition to the USDA, already garnering over 10,000 signatures in favor of removing the popular lunch kits from the National School Lunch Program.
“Even in small amounts, lead and cadmium can cause developmental problems in children, with risks increasing from regular exposure over time,” the petition states. “And eating too much sodium can lead to high blood pressure: about 14 percent of children and teens have prehypertension or hypertension. Please remove these processed food kits from the lunch program, and offer our children healthier choices.”
“Lunchables are not a healthy option for kids and shouldn’t be allowed on the menu as part of the National School Lunch Program,” Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports, said in a statement. “The Lunchables and similar lunch kits we tested contain concerning levels of sodium and harmful chemicals that can lead to serious health problems over time. The USDA should remove Lunchables from the National School Lunch Program and ensure that kids in schools have healthier options.”
About 28 million students each day in over 95,000 schools and educational institutions in the United States are provided with meals under the federal National School Lunch Program, according to the School Nutrition Association. About 19 million of those meals are free, while 8.5 million are paid in full and 1.1 million are served at a reduced price, according to the association report.
A spokesperson for the USDA tells PEOPLE: “USDA takes very seriously our responsibility to ensure school meals are of the highest nutritional quality. This is why we have a new proposed rule which aims to align our programs with the latest nutrition science and modernize our services to best serve kids. Strengthening the nutrition of school meals comes from a common goal we all share: to help kids be healthy.”
“Importantly, USDA doesn’t allow or disallow individual food items. Our requirements address the overall content of meals – some of them on a daily basis and others on a weekly basis. So, the Lunchables described in the article would need to be paired with fruit, vegetables and milk. In addition, a school who wanted to serve a higher sodium product one day has to balance that with lower sodium items on others,” the statement continued. “Many schools are taking steps to use more scratch cooked and local foods, and USDA has supported these efforts through expanded grants for equipment, training, and local food procurement.”
This is absolutely f–cking unacceptable. I’m so pissed that I need to address it one by one. First, we have the phthalates, which can lead to “reproductive problems, diabetes, obesity, certain types of cancer, and more.” Like, how many damn think pieces have we had lately that ponder why Americans are increasingly having all of these issues? I keep seeing Tweets from anti-vaxxers that blame the rising cancer rates on the Covid vaccine when really, the call has been coming from inside the cafeteria all along. And let’s talk about the lead. The Daily podcast talked about the lead found in applesauce pouches on their Feb. 29 episode. Just listening to what happened and *how* it could happen was infuriating.
Third, “taking great steps” to improve your product’s nutrition and only listing that you’re removing sodium and not some of the other ingredients with irreversible effects kinda gives away the game. Capitalism at its finest, #amirite?! Poison the children because it’s cheap and then when you get caught, take some of the salt out to say (now) you (kinda) care. Finally – and my understanding of this comes from listening to that The Daily episode, but the USDA and FDA need to step up their game because if Lunchables is meeting the “strict safety standards,” then we have a more serious problem. They need more funding and the entire industry needs to be overhauled with more regulation and better standards. It is simply unacceptable to let companies get away with feeding our children (and us; remember the two Hot Pockets recalls?) foods that can poison them and cause them lifelong problems.
I have only seen lunchables once in my life, that was while taking a flight from SF to Tokyo. They didn’t look yummy and they didn’t seem safe. I do really wonder about the American way of thinking about feeding their kids this when it is clearly not a good/safe choice for your kids. I mean it is plastic food wrapped in plastic. And people are shocked they are not safe.
I agree completely. I’m not in the US so I’ve never seen these boxes, but from the photos on their website, it looks like airplane food. Apart from the occasional juice pouch, there is no fruit or veggie-related item in them. They are mostly white bread, something made from meat and cheese, both ultra-processed looking. I don’t mean to mommy-shame. My kids are 8 and 10 I know how expensive and time consuming it is to pack nutritious lunches every day. I’m just saying that it’s not surprising that it contains these chemicals and a ton of salt. Same with sugar.
I was surprised to see these in context with school lunches. I don’t have kids or grandkids, so I don’t know anything about modern schools; I only remember my own schooling. You brought your lunch (in a Mary Poppins lunchbox, in my case) or bought a lunch (which I did later on) that was an actual cooked meal, cooked there at the school in their kitchen. I guess things have changed, per usual.
I manage a school cafeteria that is part of the NSLP and I don’t understand how Lunchables can even be an approved food. The sodium alone does not qualify in the nutrition guidelines. I’ve been struggling to find foods that fit into the ever changing guideline for sodium reduction in school lunches and it sure isn’t something like lunchables. Someone has to be mistaken here. There is no way an NSLP food program can include these.
I remember buying one for my daughter years ago and she found it absolutely disgusting. The ham was full of gristle and the crackers tasted flat. I then started making my own—this was pre bento box time for kids lunches.
I later worked in my school district and had regular lunch duty. Kids always had such problems opening the packages and spent more time playing with the food than eating it. My distain for the food product grew.
They literally just reintroduced these in Canada. I’d like to thank CR for another weapon in my arsenal for why I can say no to my kids.
Health Canada has different regulations than the FDA, so often food products have different ingredients than the American versions. Not sure about lunchables.
Europe, eu etc has many many of it own issues i know, but i have allways been shocked by the differences in “food” laws there in the states. These things can (and have) lead to lifelong problems, so i hope they take this seriously.
(Also every child everywhere deserves a free quality school meals, no matter the circumstances)
Yeah when I’m in the states I google food to see if allowed on the EU, because the states FDA has been corrupted for decades by revolving door of industry giants getting to oversee their own food.
Some Democrats have tried to stop this at different times but the outcry by an easily fooled public who are scared into thinking Democrats want to control what you’re allowed to eat is just sad.
So everyone gets poisoned because Republicans worship big business.
We need to join the EU.
Where is the lead coming from? Are they actually ADDING lead to our food now??!??
I saw a comment on twitter that made me laugh, can’t remember exactly but basically it was along the lines of “thank goodness we were too poor to buy lunchables growing up!” and yeah, my mom never let me have them because she thought they were dumb but also expensive.
Apparently cold cuts are really loaded with sodium, even if not in a lunchables box
The lead can come from the soil that food is grown in. There’s a real issue with doing backyard gardening close to old homes that had lead paint. There’s a program here where you can send soil to get it tested for lead.
Yep. I lived in such a place. Best to put your garden well away from any buildings, if you have the room.
Individually, each of those items are high in sodium: lunch meats, cheese, crackers. Together, yikes! Reducing sodium in the crackers, as one of those execs said, ain’t doing much.
I’m about to make a sweeping statement here out of my personal experience but every super MAGA person I know has cabinets full of processed cheap junk food (and no, they aren’t part of under-resourced populations and the stereotype that “poor” people eat all the junk food, which is factually incorrect but that’s a whole ‘nother topic ) and they’re the same people that screamed that vaccines were going to kill them. My Dad is a medical miracle at this point with bags of chips, candy, snack mix, sugary cereals, sodas, processed cheese, etc spilling out of every corner of his kitchen….but vaccines are gonna kill us all. GMAB. The Trump administration rolled back standards for school lunches: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/08/us/trump-school-lunch-usda.html?smid=url-share Because it’s just kids right? The whole next generation right? Ugh. A thousand times ugh.
I am definitely not a MAGA, but you are right….this is a “sweeping statement” smh……
I actually think this is at least oart of the cause. Some of the MaGA folks must be walking balls of processed food, bovine growth hormones and pthalates. These are not people who are cooking good food from scratch or exercising outdoors; they’re inside eating lunch meat and frozen pizza from Walmart and watching YouTube conservative videos or posting trash on Twitter, and likely taking a bunch of prescription drugs and alcohol. There should be an epidemiological study of Trumpers.
Fawn, you’ve raised a really good point here. This should be studied.
There’s this weird belief that it wouldn’t be for sale if it could hurt them, which coming from people who deregulate everything is so stupid. MAGA are easily fooled, obviously, or they wouldn’t lick the boots of a con artist like DT.
Sadly of course people of all ideologies eat this crap, but it has special significance from the people who are responsible for why the US has such low standards.
Here’s the thing about school lunches…there is no reason to serve crap, but if you don’t have a strong administrator at the helm, it is hard to institute change. My sister worked for 15 years as the superintendent of a small elementary school in Montana. During her tenure, she introduced farm to table to the kids, was able to get organic local-ish beef on the menu and a daily salad bar. All within budget and not without a fight. The lunchroom personnel were one of the biggest roadblocks. They preferred cheap and easy, but my sister stuck to her guns. Regarding local-ish organic beef: she would have purchased from community cattle ranches, but they didn’t meet the standards so she was able to purchase from another Montana community.
Good for your sister! There is no reason to serve junk. We are a small private school and the state’s farm to table program isn’t financially viable for us however I purchase locally sourced fresh fruits, vegetables, and dairy whenever possible. I also won’t serve any type of cold cuts. We only serve red meat three times a month, mostly we are chicken breast or turkey. Once a week we have a meatless menu. We can only afford to do one hot lunch option a day but I also have a fresh chef salad with grilled chicken breast lunch option daily as well that the students can customize ( no chicken? No problem no tomatoes? No problem). Nothing fried. Nothing with trans fats. All grains are whole grain. And I never add salt to the cooked vegetable. I use sodium free seasonings. I think we do ok and I know we are healthier than the packed lunches I see coming from home.
How about the simple fact that they’re chemical-filled crap filler food? Why would they ever have been put on the list in the first place?
Because they want most public school children to grow up with diseases that need treatment that in turn pays the people in charge. It’s always about money. Keep people sick, more revenue. They don’t care one bit about any of the actual children.
I follow a scientist @foodsciencebabe on Instagram who is a wealth of knowledge about all things food. She did an explainer video about this that I found extremely helpful. One thing she said that struck me (and I’m paraphrasing because I’m pre coffee) is that the percentages aren’t straightforward and are actually the % of the Prop 65 limits on these contaminants. So like the % of lead they give is whatever % of that Prop 65 limit. She goes on to say that that the Prop 65 levels are the exposure levels at which a chemical would have no observable reproductive effect even if a person were exposed to 1,000 times that level. So, I just want to throw this out there because while this super scary it may not be as catastrophic as it seems.
And no I’m not working for Big Lunchables and I am actually an anti-capitalist.
I just came here to say the same thing about food science babe. The fear around food is just harmful and classist and ableist. I would love to see a model of balanced meals at schools but food shaming is horrific in schools as well.
Are these actually being served in schools? Aren’t they pricey? I know my district could never afford them.
They should have never been allowed in schools. They’re right up there with Joe Camel for marketing poison to children. They’re a stereotypical example of Ultra Processed Food. UPFs are strongly associated with obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.
They’re also packaged in single-use plastic. Microplastics can cause heart disease and kidney disease. Every piece of plastic that I’ve ever touched in my lifetime is still out there somewhere in the world. The plastic fork that I used once in kindergarten will continue to poison the earth with microplastics for hundreds of years, long after my own body decomposes.
There is probably more nutrition in boiled newspaper than Lunchables. Gross. Wasn’t the last problem with them that they had salmonella? All of the ingredients: chemical soup.
There’s an IG account ericeverythinglead who just did a video on this. He also goes to stores looking for lead items and has tested baby bottles that are covered in lead but are “safe” due to how they’re tested by the government. It’s so frustrating.
I’m not a conspiracy theorist at all, and this is not intended as a body shaming commentary, but I’d wager that every generation since the Baby Boomers struggles with diabetes and obesity and now highly increased cancer rates because of the grotesque amounts of preservatives, pesticide residue, antibiotic residue in our meat and dairy products, unsafe sugar substitutes… the list goes on and on. We’re all basically guinea pigs for the food industry.
Vox had an excellent artikel about this that they updated. I was born in the US, lived there half my life, fell in love with a European, and immigrated. The problem is universal due to our dependence on what lead has done (paint, pesticides and electronics) and what it is still doing for us. It horrifying that we still use it in processes that have been off-loaded on developing countries to spare us! https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/24115827/lead-poisoning-symptoms-exposure-children-cinnamon-paint-battery-pollution-global
That said, I don’t recognize Lunchables—I still lived in the States when they came out, but I’ve never seen them. Here the advice about food is to shop mostly on the perimeter of the supermarket for your food—that’s where most items recognizable to someone from the 1800s exist. Here, the lunches are mostly sandwiches and the school snacks are fruits, but the spike in food prices has impacted that. The schools are having parents give their kids the snacks and people who have a tighter budget cannot comply as easily.
The US is overdue for a revolution. The corporations are running our country. We need politicians and leaders who are not bought out by corporations. If all the “poor” areas of the country could be reorganised to be providing things like the school lunches it would stimulate their local economies and provide fresher healthier foods. When it’s dense population areas fine then reach out to the state level and use food from within the state at least. I’m lucky to have been raised in the 80sand 90s poor enough to never have these ultra processed foods, sodas and cable tv. I swear the country was dumbed down on purpose to placate us into allowing these things. Not to mention the for profit prison industrial complex. Wishing everyday for Americans to wake up en masse and care about these serious issues.
KATE, thank you for that foodsciencebabe recommendation. It’s clearly sensationalism and poor science reporting combined causing people to get antsy.