Thermos Kids Food Jars

I've noticed some quite active discussions about sending kids to school with hot packed lunches on the parenting sites in the last few days, particularly about whether the Cool Kidz food jars would actually keep food hot for long enough so I thought I would just share my personal experiences of using the thermos food jars.

The first thing to say is: Yes! The thermos coolkidz food jar will keep food hot for up to 6 hours. You need to follow the instructions to get the best out of them, but as all this involves is filling the flask with hot water for a few minutes to take the chill off it its not so difficult. The other thing is to make sure that the food is piping hot all the way through before you put it in. This sounds obvious but at 6.30 in the morning using a microwave is not always plain sailing (at least for me!).

The second thing to say is - if you want to send a hot packed lunch, don't be tempted to opt for the cool kidz snak jar instead of the full-on food jar as the snak jar only keeps hot for an hour. (its good for a cool treat though!). As so often is the case, you get what you pay for and the all-plastic snak jar is simply not thermally efficient enough to keep food hot for as long as the funtainer food jar.

Size wise the funtainer food jar is about 13 cm high, 8 cm in diameter and holds 290ml, which I reckon is the equivalent of about three quarters of a tin of beans or soup. When full its going to weigh just over a pound ( about 550g at a guess). It fits really nicely into the thermos soft lunchbox (scroll down the page) with room for one of the sports bottles a snack bar and (just about) a piece of fruit. Of course if you buy a fruity face that would free up some more room in the lunchbox! Full of great suggestions, aren't I?

posted by Richard @ 7:40 AM