World Food Safety Day | what do you know about food packaging

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Fight against invisible pollution and help non-toxic China

June 7th is World Food Safety Day.

The festival aims to draw attention to food safety issues and stimulate action to help prevent, detect and manage foodborne risks and promote food security, human health, economic prosperity and sustainable development.

This year's theme is "Food Safety, everyone's responsibility".

Food safety is the common responsibility of the government, producers and consumers. From the farm to the table, everyone has a responsibility to make sure that the food we eat is safe.

Maybe you don't know how to act. In fact, it's not difficult to take responsibility for food safety. You don't have to do something earth-shaking. You can be responsible for yourself first, such as reading an article on such a topic, and then making some changes in your life. Change yourself first, and then slowly change others.

The plastic number is enough. It's not that simple.

Thanks to garbage sorting, I believe many people already know the plastic number, which was originally designed to reclassify plastics when recycling, but it has left out a lot.

There are a large number of packages that are not marked with this number, such as the plastic inner film of cans, the outer packaging of snacks, and the transparent windows on the packaging; or they cannot be marked, for example, these numbers cannot be printed directly on the plastic wrap, they can only be printed on the outer package.

What on earth is plastic?

Today's well-known plastics are a general term for a class of synthetic resins. Before the advent of synthetic resins, there were only naturally occurring resins in the resin world, such as rosin, amber and shellac.

Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland successfully synthesized plastic from man-made materials in 1907. He has great confidence in this new material: insulation, heat resistance, easy to shape!

It is true that plastics solved many functional problems compared with the existing materials of that era, but what is more exciting is that artificial plastics can be produced faster than natural resins.

Plastics were favored by the military during World War II, and after World War II, plastic manufacturers made a big push into the civilian sector in order to continue their industry.

The waterproof, impervious and lightweight properties of plastic also make it a material for making daily utensils. Since 1979, the output of plastic has exceeded that of steel and has become the leader in man-made materials.

In the 1950s, there were color televisions in the United States, and TV commercials would put plastic box sets in the same picture as a lady's life and a clean beach, coupled with advertising words to arouse people's desire to buy. Now it seems quite ironic.

Harmful substances in packaging

Food packaging materials, as a barrier between food and the environment, were originally designed to protect food from environmental contamination in the process of transporting food. However, if the packaging itself is toxic, then the food is no longer safe.

At present, the three kinds of harmful substances widely existing in plastics are phthalate esters (PAEs), bisphenol A (BPA) and fluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

Example sharing: there may be plasticizers in moon cakes

In 2013, Consumer report bought eight brand mooncakes in Guangzhou and sent them to Guangdong Food quality Supervision and Inspection Station.

The results of the testing agency showed that all the mooncake saucers used by the eight brands detected phthalate plasticizers DEHP and DBP, which are "materials only for non-fatty foods".

Confirmed by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, DEHP belongs to Class 2B carcinogens and DBP belongs to Class 3 carcinogens. (note: category 2B may be carcinogenic to human body, while category 3 is not sure whether it can cause cancer or not.)

In 2019, non-toxic Pioneer bought five mooncake pallets on the e-commerce platform and sent them to a qualified third-party testing institution to test the transfer of four phthalates (DEHP/DBP/DINP/DAP) in the mooncake saucer. A 10-day food contact simulation experiment was conducted to see how many plasticizers would run into the food.

The results show that plasticizer migration will occur in both PVC mooncake saucers, and the DEHP migration of mooncake saucers purchased by JD.com is as high as 84.7mg/kg.

Advice to consumers

If you have to use plastic containers or packaging

1. Do not heat plastic, paper and foam products that hold food.

two。 Avoid using high-risk plastics (No. 3, 6, 7) to hold food.

3. Be familiar with the maximum heat resistance temperature and taboos of all kinds of plastics

Solve the problem from the source

1. Buy ingredients that are not deeply processed, cook them yourself, and eat them immediately.

two。 Replace plastics with glass, non-glazed ceramics and stainless steel.

3. Be familiar with the maximum heat resistance temperature and taboos of all kinds of plastics