In this photo, a package of Lunchables is on display Wednesday in San Anselmo, California. Consumer Reports is calling on the Department of Agriculture to eliminate Lunchables food kits from the National School Lunch Program after finding high levels of lead, sodium and cadmium in tested kits.
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In this photo, a package of Lunchables is on display Wednesday in San Anselmo, California. Consumer Reports is calling on the Department of Agriculture to eliminate Lunchables food kits from the National School Lunch Program after finding high levels of lead, sodium and cadmium in tested kits.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Advocacy group Consumer Reports is urging the federal government to remove Lunchables from the nation’s free and reduced-price school lunch program after an analysis found high amounts of sodium and high levels of heavy metals.
Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports, said meal kits are not healthy for children and called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to remove the brand from its national school lunch program.
“Lunchables and similar meal kits we tested contain concerning levels of sodium and harmful chemicals that can lead to serious health problems over time,” Ronholm said in a statement. “The USDA should remove Lunchables from the National School Lunch Program and ensure that school children have healthier options.”
Consumer Reports said it found high levels of sodium in Lunchables, detected lead and cadmium in testing and also observed the presence of phthalates, which can impact reproductive health and the human hormonal system.
A USDA spokesperson said the department does not permit or prohibit individual food products, but rather sets requirements for the overall nutritional content of meals on a daily or weekly basis.
“So the Lunchables described in the article should be accompanied by fruits, vegetables and milk,” the spokesperson said. “Additionally, a school that ever wants to serve a higher sodium product must balance that with lower sodium products over others.”
They added that the USDA “takes very seriously our responsibility to ensure that school meals are of the highest nutritional quality” and is helping more schools use local ingredients and prepare supplemental meals from It was nothing.
Kraft Heinz says it stands by the quality of Lunchables
In a statement, a spokesperson for Kraft Heinz, which makes Lunchables, said all of its products meet strict safety standards and that lead and cadmium occur naturally in the environment and can be present in food. food in small quantities.
“We are proud of Lunchables and remain committed to the quality and integrity that goes into making them,” they said.
Kraft Heinz also recently improved the nutritional benefits of Lunchables by adding fresh fruit and reducing the sodium content of its crackers, the spokesperson added.
Consumer Reports says two varieties of Lunchables are currently served in the school lunch program: Turkey Cheddar Cracker Stackers and Extra Cheese Pizza.
The group tested store-bought versions of these varieties and found that they contained 74% and 69% of California’s maximum lead, respectively. Consumer Reports said it used the California threshold for lead as a benchmark for testing rather than the federal limit because the California standard is “currently the most protective.”
The group tested 12 meal kits in total, including Lunchables and other brands, and found at least one type of phthalate in every kit except the Extra Cheesy Pizza variety.
Consumer Reports says school lunchables have higher sodium levels
Consumer Reports also found that Lunchables intended for distribution in schools, which contain whole grains in the crackers and additional protein, contain more sodium than those found in stores.
The turkey and cheese variety used in schools contains 930 mg of sodium, compared to 740 mg found in commercially available kits. For schools, the pizza variety contains 700 mg of sodium, while the in-store option contained 510 mg.
That means the turkey and cheese option contains nearly half the federally suggested daily amount, while the pizza selection contains 34 percent of the recommended daily amount of sodium and more than 50 percent of the limit. California for cadmium, the group discovered.
A petition created by Consumer Reports to push the USDA to remove Lunchables from schools has garnered more than 14,000 signatures as of Wednesday afternoon.
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