Takeaway Packaging: Are Plastic Cutlery Reliable?
At present, the Internet has facilitated people's lives. Many people have the experience of ordering takeout online. Open the Meituan, Ele.me and other APPs to place orders directly, and various packaged delicacies will be delivered directly to the door. However, while take-out brings great abundance and convenience to everyone's diet, many people also have some concerns - take-out food is always stored in disposable plastic boxes and plastic bowls. Are these plastic tableware safe and hygienic? Is it bad for the body to eat?
1. Plastic tableware facilitates life
With the rapid development of the economy and society and the accelerated pace of work, people are increasingly pursuing a safe, hygienic, convenient and refined life. Because of this, disposable products have swept the world. Disposable plastic lunch boxes, bowls, drinking cups, straws and other products not only meet the needs of consumers for modern life such as convenience, speed, and cleanliness, but also form a huge scale. Industrial clusters and industrial chains.
Big data shows that currently 3 out of 10 Chinese are takeaway users, generating more than 20 million takeaways every day. Due to the characteristics of convenience, portability, and quantity control, the overall demand for disposable PP plastic tableware in the food and beverage packaging market continues to grow.
"For restaurants, the most important thing is how to ensure that the food is delivered to customers within 25 minutes to an hour, and that the color, aroma, taste and shape of the food are basically the same as when it came out of the pan." A chain The owner of the restaurant said that Chinese food and beverages are particularly rich and complex. For those with soup and water, paper tableware cannot be guaranteed, and only plastic tableware can be used.
"With the rapid development of online food ordering, plastic lunch boxes and plastic dish bowls for packing take-out are very popular. Moreover, people have a sense of saving, and the dishes that cannot be eaten in restaurants can also be packed away with plastic tableware, which is very convenient. It can reduce waste of resources." The person in charge of Zhejiang Taizhou Fenghua Packaging Container Co., Ltd. said that the packaging tableware produced by the manufacturer is not only fashionable, beautiful and atmospheric, but also the food-grade raw materials used in production are very pure and have good gloss, which can ensure safety and hygiene. .
The person in charge said that now the health supervision department and manufacturers have very strict quality requirements for disposable tableware, not only for convenience of use, but also to ensure product quality, good sealing, high temperature resistance, hygiene and environmental protection.
2. Digital secrets on plastic packaging
Careful friends may find that there are triangular logos and numbers on the bottom or side of the plastic tableware. What do these logos and numbers do and what do they mean?
According to experts, the triangular ring logo composed of 3 arrows means "recyclable", and the Arabic numerals in the middle indicate the type of plastic. Different materials have different characteristics and scope of application. At present, plastic products are sorted from No. 1 to No. 6. Among them, No. 5 is the most commonly used material for takeaway packaging boxes.
No. 1: PET (polyethylene terephthalate), because of its high transparency, it is mostly used in mineral water bottles and carbonated beverage bottles. This material is not resistant to high temperature. When the temperature exceeds 70 °C, it will deform and dissolve substances harmful to the human body. Therefore, it cannot be used repeatedly, and it should not be used for high-temperature food or for heating.
No. 2: HDPE (high density polyethylene), which is less transparent than No. 1. It is often used in milk bottles and dairy beverage bottles, but its temperature resistance is higher than that of No. 1, which can reach 110 °C, so hot water can be used. Warm it up and drink it.
No. 3: PVC (polyvinyl chloride), which is easy to produce two kinds of toxic and harmful substances, has been less used for packaging food.
No. 4: LDPE (low density polyethylene), the most widely used is plastic wrap, which is much safer than No. 3. It can be used to wrap cooked and hot food, but the temperature should not be too high, because when heated to 110 ℃, it will The hot melt phenomenon occurs, and the harmful substances in the material will be dissolved out. So when heating food in the microwave, be sure to remove the plastic wrap first.
No. 5: PP (polypropylene), the temperature resistance can reach 130 ℃, because of its high temperature resistance, high hardness, stable to organic solvents and oils such as acid and alkali, it is mainly used in microwave lunch boxes, plastic cups for drinking water, Disposable lunch boxes are the most widely used in takeaway tableware and are the only plastic lunch boxes that can be directly put into the microwave for heating. At present, all PP can be regarded as food grade, and will not dissolve harmful substances under normal and high temperature conditions.
No. 6: PS (polystyrene), mainly used to make bowls of instant noodle boxes and foamed fast food boxes. Some stores will be used to sell rice fast food, but when the temperature is too high, chemical substances will be precipitated.
3. Internet rumors are not credible
There are rumors on the Internet that often eating food packaged in plastic tableware is harmful to the body, on the grounds that these plastic tableware will release harmful substances such as plasticizers, bisphenol A, dioxins, and heavy metals.
But in fact, it's not.
Plasticizers, also known as plasticizers, are added to hard plastics to make them more elastic and durable. In the past, No. 3 was the most commonly used hard plastic with plasticizers, but No. 1, No. 5, and No. 6, which are most commonly used in take-out plastic tableware, are all soft plastics, which are inherently elastic and do not require the use of plasticizers.
In addition, bisphenol A is a chemical raw material, and bisphenol A in food contact materials may indeed be transferred to food. However, the three materials of No. 1, No. 5 and No. 6 mainly used in takeaway plastic containers are all The use of bisphenol A is not required.
There are also claims that No. 1 plastic releases dioxins when refrigerated. Dioxins are toxic substances and can cause cancer, but there is currently no scientific evidence that No. 1 plastic itself contains dioxins, and dioxins are not produced at refrigerated temperatures.
Some other chemicals used to make plastics have the potential to be released into food, such as plastic containers from material No. 1 that contain traces of antimony. However, research shows that the antimony content of PET bottled beverages is very low, far below the guideline value set by the World Health Organization for drinking water quality, and does not pose a health risk. In fact, my country also has limited standards for some chemicals in plastic containers. For example, antimony in plastic containers of No. 1 material cannot be higher than 0.05 mg/L.
All in all, for qualified disposable plastic tableware produced by regular manufacturers, we don't have to worry too much about its safety. Of course, it is not a good thing to eat takeout often, for example, it is difficult to guarantee nutritional balance and hygiene.
Hygienic qualified products should be used
4. So, how to distinguish whether the takeaway plastic container is qualified?
Experts pointed out that the methods of looking at the appearance, touching the strength and smelling the smell can be used to distinguish whether the take-out plastic tableware is qualified. Qualified products should first have the QS mark (enterprise food production license), and the surface looks smooth and transparent, free of stains, impurities, scratches, cracks, etc., and no bubbles, discoloration, fading, in addition, it will not feel soft and smell. It doesn't smell bad either.
If there is such a situation as "smelling strange", it may be a substandard product. Of course, sometimes it's not easy to tell, so it's better to choose regular fast food restaurants or restaurants, because the plastic containers they use are usually more secure in quality.
It's important to note that not all plastic utensils are suitable for serving piping hot food. Do not use No. 3 material or plastic tableware with unknown materials to package high-fat foods, such as boiled fish fillets, braised eggplants, etc. Also pay attention to the use temperature of various plastic tableware, such as plastic containers of No. 6 material will become soft at 95 ℃. Not all plastic containers are suitable for microwave heating. Plastic tableware made of No. 1 and No. 6 materials has a relatively low heat resistance and cannot be heated in a microwave oven, nor can it be loaded with too hot food. If you are not sure whether the take-out plastic container can be heated, you can pour the food into a pot and reheat it.
In addition, do not reuse disposable plastic tableware for take-out. For example, take-out boxes made of No. 1 and No. 6 plastic should be discarded after use, and should not be used for other food. However, it should not be discarded indiscriminately, and should be actively sorted and recycled to reduce resource waste and environmental pollution.
"In the next 10 years, the socialization, intensification, and industrialization of kitchens will have a huge development, and the consequent problem of disposable tableware pollution will also develop rapidly." Zhou Lili, senior engineer of the General Business Department of China Plastics Processing Industry Association, pointed out , Plastic products are a relatively contradictory product, which facilitates our lives, but also brings environmental protection issues. She suggested that the relevant departments develop a rule to recycle, recycle and manage these discarded tableware.
