How are bento boxes safe to eat when they’re kept at room temperature for several hours before eating?
In: 103
Because most food safety standards are way more strict than what your body is actually capable of dealing with. Food doesn’t just turn to poison right away. Perhaps for someone with a weak immune system, it is more problematic. Food safety standards basically account for that lowest denominator.
I can think of two reasons off the top of my head:
1. Most bentos don’t contain raw foods.
2. Most bentos are insulated.
I grew up with a “bento” that was essentially a Thermos (insulated container), with individually sealed compartments for things like rice and soup. Alternarively, in Taiwan, for example, there’s a standard bento box that’s made out of stainless steel that kids bring to school and that the school will heat up on racks in a steam bath before lunchtime.
If it’s not insulated, you’ll want to refrigerate it and/or heat it up for serving. Not just for food safety, either — warm rice is much softer than cold and tastes better in general.
But there’s nothing magical about a bento box. You can definitely smell the difference between a bento at lunchtime and at the end of the day.
Modern food safety standards err strongly on the side of caution. To put it another way, before the 60s child’s took lunch to school and factory workers took lunch to work and there weren’t mass die offs.
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