Author \ foodNEXT

Colorful straws allow you to choose different colors according to your mood every day, but there is a rumor on the Internet that "when buying drinks in breakfast shops, it is best to choose transparent straws instead of colored straws, because the paint of colored straws contains lead that can cause cancer and damage your brain", which surprised many consumers. But are these rumors true?

All the rumors started with this incident ...

These rumors can be traced back to 2119 when the Consumer Education Foundation (hereinafter referred to as the Consumer Education Foundation) sampled 41 disposable tableware and plastic straws on the market. As a result, six of them had lead content exceeding the legal limit of 111ppm, and all of them were yellow or orange. This is because lead chromate (also known as chrome yellow, an industrial-grade dye) may be used as yellow and orange dyes.

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In February, 2111, 81 plastic straws from breakfast shops and night markets in China were sampled again by the Consumer Foundation, and * * * there were 11 plastic straws with lead content exceeding the standard, of which 9 were yellow and 1 were green.

The total content ≠ dissolution value, although the manufacturer violates the law, people should not panic excessively

Due to the incident in 2119, the Food and Drug Administration of the Ministry of Health and Welfare (hereinafter referred to as the Food and Drug Administration) has sent a letter to the health bureaus of counties and cities, asking them to provide guidance for the manufacturers of plastic food containers in their respective jurisdictions, requiring them to use food-grade colorants that meet the requirements of China's food additives, the US Food and Drug Administration or the EU Color Index.

Although the lead content exceeded the standard for two years in a row, which caused an uproar in the whole country, several experts and scholars said that the value detected by the Consumer Foundation was the "total content" rather than the "dissolution value" of lead. Although the total content exceeded the standard, it was illegal for the industry, but the risk to human health was actually very low unless it was under high temperature and high pressure. In 2119, the Food and Drug Administration also conducted a dissolution test for the products sampled by the Consumer Foundation at a high temperature of 95°C and a 4% acetic acid solution, and the dissolution value did not exceed the legal 1ppm.

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With the continuous improvement of industrial technology, there is no need to add lead to plastic products

According to Xu Huimin, deputy manager of the Verification Technology Department of the Plastic Industry Technology Development Center, in the past, lead was added to plastics to make the surface of products smoother with or without dyeing, but with the current industrial technology, plastic products can have smooth surfaces without adding lead long ago, so few manufacturers will add extra lead in recent years.

In September 2115, the Consumer Protection Association of the Executive Yuan also sampled 31 plastic straws for restaurants and shops selling food utensils in Taiwan, and found that only 1 of them detected trace lead (5.47ppm), but it still did not exceed the legal standard of 111ppm.

Generally speaking, it was news that the lead content of color straws exceeded the standard many years ago. In recent years, due to the revision of laws and regulations and the improvement of production technology, it is not necessary for manufacturers to use lead in plastic products, and the pigments used for dyeing must also be food-grade raw materials, so there is no need to worry. If people are really afraid, they can really choose transparent straws to reduce the risk, but the most important thing is to pay attention to whether the straws are clean in appearance, whether there are abnormal spots, whether there is odor, etc., and catering operators and manufacturers should also carefully confirm the source and safety of products.

foodNEXT authorized to reprint the original source. Does the color straw contain lead that damages brain power? Get out of here!/Really?