Mum’s warning to parents after gross find in child’s lunchbox: ‘Clean them STAT’

One parent has shared her horror after finding black mould inside her daughter’s lunchbox - and is urging other parents to take a second look. 

Mum Ashleigh, who posts on TikTok under the handle ashleighjade08, shared a clip of herself cleaning the lunch box her daughter has eaten out of every day for two years, reports Kidspot. 

She took apart the different compartments as well as the silicone band across the top of the bento-box style container. 

Then she noticed something strange, and showed the camera one of the silicone bands covered in black mould, saying, “Yuck ... I think water must get trapped in there. Gross!” 

She continued to pull apart the lunchbox sections and urged parents of kids who eat out of similar ones to “clean them STAT”. 

“I’m raising awareness to [take off the seals] every damn time you wash the lunch box,” she added. 

The clip now has nearly 90,000 views and 3000 likes - and many of her followers shared their take in the comments. 

One pointed out that it might be a known fact that this type of lunch box needs to be thoroughly cleaned after it’s been used, commenting, “Is this not common sense? For any airtight leakproof containers?” 

Mum Ashleigh Jade showed the mould growing inside her daughter's lunch box in a TikTok video. Photo / @ashleighjade08

Another said, “This is pretty obvious,” with a third remarking that it was “utterly embarrassing” that Ashleigh hadn’t already known this. 

She responded, “I don’t get embarrassed easily.” 

And clearly she wasn’t the only one who didn’t realise the silicone bands could be removed and cleaned. 

“S***, I’ll need to clean mine now,” one parent wrote, while another added, “I’m grabbing my daughter’s today immediately after school.” 

“I never even knew the seals came off! Checking tomorrow as soon as I am home,” wrote another viewer, adding, “When I tell you my jaw dropped ...” 

This article was first published on the NZ Herald and is republished here with permission.