Deconstructed pizza discs, a “Cherry Freeze” flavored Prime drink, and a side of . . . mold? Lunchly, a Lunchables competitor that was created by YouTube stars MrBeast, Logan Paul, and KSI, has recently come under fire after reports that mold-covered cheese was discovered in their prepacked lunch kits targeted at children.
Rosanna Pansino, a cookbook author and YouTuber with 14.5 million subscribers of her own, recently posted a video of herself opening a package of Lunchly’s “The Pizza” meal kit. Among the “premium” toppings—including low-moisture, part-skim mozzarella cheese, pizza crust, sauce, and uncured pork pepperoni—was a rather unwelcome addition: blue mold. “This is molded,” she said in the video, which has been viewed more than 883,000 times since it was posted on October 19. “This is not safe.”
To ensure she hadn’t picked up an expired box, Pansino checked the expiration date on the kit: Use by December 8, 2024. “I’m sure they will still not believe this is real, but maybe the dozens of other videos online showing moldy mozzarella cheese in Lunchlys will convince them,” Pansino said in the video.
It seems Pansino is right, that she’s not the only one to be disappointed. “The cheese is moldy,” one TikTok user posted in a video titled, “Lunchly review gone wrong.” “I like my cheese moldy bruh,” another TikToker jokes in their clip, showing a close-up of the Lunchly meal kit’s blue-colored cheese. “Opening a Lunchly everyday until i find mold, day 1:,” an X user posted, alongside a picture of the mold-topped mini pizzas.
“All Lunchly products go through a stringent review process to ensure the quality and safety of its products,” Lunchly said in a statement to the news website Dexerto. “That process consists of multiple inspections and approvals, including that of the USDA, before any product can even leave the manufacturing facility.”
Lunchly, which launched last month, offers three different meal options, including the ingredients to make a turkey sandwich, pizza, and nachos. Also included in the kits are MrBeast’s chocolate bar, Feastables, and PRIME, the energy drink owned by Paul and KSI.
The brand was launched as a “healthier alternative” to a market “dominated by Lunchables.” The website features side-by-side comparisons of Turkey Stack ‘Ems, Pizza, and Fiesta Nachos to the Lunchables equivalents, claiming that Lunchly has fewer calories, less sugar, and more electrolytes than its competitor.
The brand also boasts its use of “real cheese” in the Lunchly pizza meal kit, containing “low-moisture part-skim” mozzarella cheese with “cultured pasteurized part-skim milk” rather than the “cheese product” used in Lunchables. But since the “cheese product” doesn’t attract mold, perhaps it’s not such an unhealthy choice, after all.