Over 225 public and private schools in California using the pioneering services of the catering company Choicelunch have even more confidence in the quality of the individual meals delivered and served thanks to the introduction of Timestrip Plus™ to their transit cool boxes.

Choicelunch is a company committed to providing school children with nutritionally balanced healthy lunches, hand cooked and prepared to order each day. The family run business has grown from a ‘mom and pop’ support service in a small kitchen to become one of the fastest growing businesses in California employing over 100 people, producing thousands of meals a year.

Using the choicelunch.com website or iPhone app ordering systems each child chooses their lunch from daily menus. The meals are delivered by GPS tracked vans – all the children have to do is give their name at the food service counter and then select their fresh fruits and drinks to go with their main meal.

The emphasis is on the provision of real food, healthy eating and the sourcing of ingredients that cater for all dietary needs – covering gluten-free, antibiotic-free and hormone-free; with a focus on organic, locally sourced fruit and vegetables. This is a truly green business, with meal bags and disposable cutlery fully compostable.

They educate too, running cookery classes for kids and an active social network using Facebook for parents.

Choicelunch is a business big on the small details. They could see the need for the distribution and service teams to have total confidence in temperature control, from kitchen release through to pick-up by the kids. In keeping with their mantra to be the best at what they do they created a production protocol based on the extensive use of Timestrip Plus™ indicators.

Using Timestrip Plus™ smart indicators applied to the inside of each cool box they have a simple, highly accurate and clearly visible readout showing how long the contents have been above the critical 40/41°F (5°C) chilled threshold.

Timestrip Plus™ indicators monitor the cumulative time outside of a specific temperature threshold and can be manufactured to meet a range of compliance temperatures used in the food and pharmaceutical industries.

ChoiceLunch (and the State Health Inspectors) love the tamper-proof integrity of the Timestrip Plus™ indicators and use the unambiguous Timestrip® display to prevent the consumption of food stuffs exposed to temperatures above 40/41°F (5°C) for more than 2 hours.

With a guarantee that lunches are delivered and served at the right temperature, parents with children at a vulnerable age get the peace of mind they deserve, from a company they know is 100% committed to providing safe, healthy food for hungry school kids.

You could say Timestrip® gives Choicelunch a big tick in the (cool) box for food quality monitoring!