Lunchables Have High Levels Of Lead And Sodium, Report Says

Should you pack Lunchables for your kid’s lunch? Well, Consumer Reports tests found some lunch kits contained lead and other harmful contaminants, and most were very high in sodium. They also created a petition to ask the USDA to remove Lunchables from school lunch programs.

CNN reported that in 2023, Lunchables developed two new versions of the lunch kit specifically available nationally as part of school lunch programs for the first time. Before being available in schools the company had to “reformulate” the ingredients to ensure the products met federal guidelines.

Consumer Reports tested 12 of them and similar lunch kits from Armour LunchMakers, Good & Gather (Target), Greenfield Natural Meat, and Oscar Mayer to find out if Lunchables are good choices for a kid's lunch. They looked for lead and other heavy metals, phthalates, chemicals used to make plastic more flexible and durable, and sodium. Additionally, they compared the nutrition information for the two school lunch versions of Lunchables with their store-bought versions.

"There's a lot to be concerned about in these kits," said Amy Keating, a registered dietitian at Consumer Reports. "They’re highly processed, and regularly eating processed meat, a main ingredient in many of these products, has been linked to increased risk of some cancers."

They also found that some kits had potential concerns about heavy metal and phthalate levels. And they're too high in sodium, especially for kids.

"We don't think anybody should regularly eat these products, and they definitely shouldn't be considered a healthy school lunch," said Eric Boring, Ph.D., a chemist who led Consumer Reports' testing.

Consumer Reports said sodium levels in the store-bought lunch and snack kits tested ranged from 460 to 740 milligrams per serving, or "nearly a quarter to half of a child’s daily recommended limit for sodium." The group found that sodium levels in the turkey and cheddar school versions of Lunchables contained 930 mg of sodium compared to 740 mg in the store-bought version.

According to the CDC, exposure to lead can "seriously harm" a child's health. This includes damage to the brain and nervous system, slowed growth and development, learning and behavior problems, and hearing and speech problems.

The American Heart Association reported that eating too much sodium is associated with higher blood pressure in children and teens, and the effect is even greater if they’re overweight or obese. Kids with high-sodium diets are almost 40% more likely to have elevated blood pressure than kids with lower-sodium diets. High blood pressure in childhood can also result in early development of heart disease and risk for premature death.

Take a look at the full report and their findings here.

A new Consumer Reports study has ranked the riskiest foods. They analyzed data from the CDC, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Department of Agriculture between 2017 and 2022. Their researchers focused on "widely consumed foods" that had recalls over a specific duration of time.

According to Consumers Reports, the CDC estimates that 48 million people each year fall ill from salmonella, listeria, E. coli, or other bacteria or viruses in food. They said most recover on their own after a few days. But about 130,000 people are hospitalized and 3,000 die from foodborne illnesses yearly.

Some of the foods that are ranked at the top of the list include bagged salads, poultry products, and deli meats. The top five are leafy greens, deli cheese and meat, ground beef, onions, and poultry. Bagged salads and other leafy greens ranked number one on the list. They found 50 different recalls linked to them since 2017. Also, it has the most caused deaths. Last on the list at number ten is flour. Unlike leafy greens, flour has had zero total deaths.

"We aren’t saying people need to avoid these foods entirely," says Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at CR, who led the analysis. "After all, these foods are all usually safe, and many of them are in fact important parts of a healthy diet." Ronholm continued to say in Consumers Report that the list underscores the "importance of following best food safety practices with all of your foods, including knowing how to track, and respond, to food recalls when they happen." Read the entire list, and learn how you can reduce your risk at Consumer Reports.