Lunchables — prepackaged boxes of deli meat, cheese and crackers — are not the healthiest option when it comes to picking snacks or lunches for kids, as they contain troublesome levels of lead and sodium, according to Consumer Reports.The advocacy group tested Lunchables, made by Kraft Heinz, as well as similar lunch and snack kits from other manufacturers, finding cause for concern in the products popular for decades as a convenient snack or lunch for children.
'The kits provide only about 15% of the 1,600 daily calories that a typical 8-year-old requires, but that small amount of food puts them fairly close to the daily maximum limit for lead,' stated Eric Boring, a CR chemist who led the testing. 'So if a child gets more than half of the daily limit for lead from so few calories, there's little room for potential exposure from other foods, drinking water or the environment.