Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Courtney Pochin

Innocent lunch box should send alarm bells ringing for parents - can you spot why?

This seemingly innocent looking lunchbox should apparently be ringing alarm bells for parents - but can you spot why?

The tin contains ham white bread sandwiches, crackers, a fruit roll up and a chocolate yogurt and looks pretty similar to what many of us tucked into at break time when we were kids.

But according to Australian nutrition experts at the Cancer Council NSW, this meal could actually be doing more harm than good saying it hides an "uncomfortable truth" parents might not want to face.

To highlight their concerns, they also shared a photo of a second lunchbox to see if people can notice the difference.

Can you see what's wrong with this photo? (Cancer Council NSW)
The council shared this second snap of a lunch box, which was much healthier (Cancer Council NSW)

Get the news you want straight to your inbox. Sign up for a Mirror newsletter here.

The second lunch box contains cheese and tomato sandwich, fruit, vegetable sticks and a yoghurt.

The first box contains twice the sugar and half the second packed lunch.

And if that wasn't enough to send alarm bells ringing for parents, the contents of the unhealthier box also happen to cost twice as much, due to most of it being pre-packaged items.

Speaking to news.com.au, Cancer Council NSW’s senior nutrition program officer Nina Tan explained that many parents buy pre-packaged snacks for school because it saves time - or because children really want them.

She said: "When it comes to pre-packaged foods, companies are plastering them with nutrition-related marketing claims like ‘source of calcium’ or ‘no artificial…’, and adding colours, cartoon characters and fonts designed to draw in both parents and kids.

"Bright colours, cartoon animals and fun shapes are used to attract children, and text like ‘no need to chill’ and ‘the perfect lunch box biscuits’ are used to appeal to parents’ desire to make easy and quick lunch box choices for their kids, but these snacks can be packed with sugar, salt and kilojoules and often don’t provide children with the nutrients they need."

Cancer Council NSW recently assessed 140 popular lunch box snacks in Australia and found nearly 80 per cent could be classified as unhealthy.

Ms Tan added that they were "particularly concerned" by the results given the role lunch box snacks played in a children’s diet.

In an attempt to tackle this concern, the council have since set up a website for parents to help them pack healthier lunches. You can find out more at https://healthylunchbox.com.au/

Do you have a story to share? We want to hear all about it. Email us at yourmirror@mirror.co.uk

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.