Nowadays, it has become a habit for consumers to pack up leftover meals when dining in restaurants. So what is the quality and safety of packed lunch boxes? Professor Dong Jinshi, vice president and secretary-general of the International Food Packaging Association, revealed that recently In recent years, about 15 billion disposable plastic lunch boxes are used in our country every year, and qualified and unqualified products account for about half. The qualification rate of the lunch box market in big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin is relatively high, reaching more than 70%. The unqualified products mainly include foam lunch boxes whose production and use have been banned by the state, inferior tableware produced using toxic and harmful raw and auxiliary materials, and fake lunch boxes with the words environmentally friendly and degradable. Disposable foamed plastic lunch boxes are still on sale 10 years after the ban was issued. "Disposable foamed plastic tableware is a fire hazard, easily poisoned when exposed to heat, difficult to recycle, rot and degrade, and difficult to be burned in landfills. It is listed as one of the industrial policies of our country." "Elimination products." Professor Dong Jinshi said that in January 1999, the former State Economic and Trade Commission promulgated and implemented the requirements of the "Catalog for the Elimination of Backward Production Capacities, Processes and Products" to eliminate disposable foam plastic tableware nationwide by the end of 2000. . But to this day, there are still many companies in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Guangdong and other places that continue to produce and sell. Some foam products add carcinogenic fluorescent whitening agents to cover up impurities, and some companies add toxic color masterbatch to reduce the foaming effect. The product is dyed yellow. In the 1980s, disposable foam lunch boxes made of polystyrene quickly became popular on trains. The cost of producing this kind of disposable lunch box is low, the process is simple, and the profit rate is more than 50%, attracting a large number of companies to invest in production. In recent years, my country has developed and produced a variety of fast food utensils such as polypropylene, starch, bidegradable plastics, pulp molding, plant fiber, cardboard and composite materials. However, because the cost is much higher than that of foamed plastic tableware, many companies are still willing to take risks to produce foamed tableware, driven by huge profits. The main raw materials of disposable foam plastic lunch boxes are polystyrene and foaming agent. Polystyrene is a polymer of styrene. When it reaches 60 degrees Celsius, some free styrene monomers and some harmful substances will migrate out, causing harm to the human body; foaming agents generally use flammable gases such as butyl alkane, which can easily cause fire; in addition, some take-out lunch boxes produced in violation of national standards will produce an unpleasant smell when containing heated food. This is because waste plastics that do not meet hygienic requirements are used in the raw materials of foam lunch boxes. The toxic substances released will cause certain damage to the human central nervous system. The cost of inferior disposable plastic lunch boxes can be reduced by 2/3. By the end of 2009, more than 980 disposable tableware manufacturers in my country have obtained production licenses. But it is undeniable that there are still a large number of products produced by some companies that have not obtained production licenses in the market. Some companies only obtain a production license for one product, but print license numbers on multiple products to deceive consumers; some companies use a large amount of industrial grade calcium carbonate in production in order to reduce production costs after obtaining the license. , talcum powder, paraffin and other toxic and harmful raw and auxiliary materials, and even waste plastics from unknown sources. Dong Jinshi pointed out that raw material costs account for the largest proportion in tableware production. It is safe to use food-grade raw materials to produce lunch boxes. In order to reduce costs, unscrupulous companies will use industrial raw materials or waste plastics to produce lunch boxes. At present, polypropylene raw materials cost about 10,000 yuan per ton. If industrial raw materials or waste plastics are used, the cost per ton is only about 5,000 yuan. If a large amount of calcium carbonate, talc powder and other auxiliary materials are used, the raw material cost can be reduced by half. At present, the cost of each good-quality plastic lunch box is at least 0.15 yuan, while the cost of each inferior lunch box can be reduced to less than 5 cents. If low-quality disposable plastic lunch boxes are used for a long time, toxic and harmful substances will dissolve into the food, which can cause the user indigestion, local pain, and liver system lesions. It can seriously affect the intellectual development of children. In severe cases, it can also cause gallstones, heavy metals, etc. Poisoning and even cell canceration. Nearly 80% of biodegradable lunch boxes are counterfeit products. On December 1, 2009, the "General Technical Requirements for Plastic Disposable Tableware" promulgated by the China National Standardization Administration Committee was implemented.

This standard limits the scope of plastic disposable tableware to "disposable tableware made of various thermoplastic materials", eliminates paper tableware and photobiodegradable material tableware applicable to the original standard, and clearly stipulates that starch-based tableware The starch content of the utensils must not be less than 40%, and the degradation rate of biodegradable lunch boxes must not be less than 60%. Dong Jinshi said that the "General Technical Requirements for Plastic Disposable Tableware" formulated national standards for disposable plastic tableware for the first time, ending the chaotic state of the past when there were no standards for non-degradable tableware, and reducing the need for each company to formulate corporate standards. trouble. For the first time, this standard recognizes the legal status of non-degradable plastic tableware in the form of a national standard, and also puts forward specific index requirements for degradable plastic tableware, reducing the confusion caused to the market by blind promotion of degradable plastic tableware by companies in the past. According to survey statistics from the International Food Packaging Association, nearly 80% of biodegradable lunch boxes currently on the market are counterfeit products. In terms of cost, degradable lunch boxes cost 0.2 to 0.25 yuan each, while counterfeit degradable lunch boxes cost only 0.07 yuan each. Due to the three to four times difference in production costs, and some manufacturers targeting consumers' preference for biodegradable lunch boxes, they use lunch boxes made of waste plastic to pass off as biodegradable lunch boxes, resulting in a mixed market for disposable lunch boxes. How to identify inferior disposable plastic lunch boxes? Dong Jinshi reminds consumers that the inner wall of inferior plastic lunch boxes is rough, feels astringent, soft to the touch, and will break if you tear it lightly; when exposed to light, there are obvious defects in the surface material of the box. Regular small black spots, and white wax marks will appear when folded; it smells pungent and even irritates the eyes; it will deform when exposed to heat, and there is oil and water leakage; it will sink easily when put into water after being torn, and qualified products If the specific gravity is less than 1, it will not sink. In addition, packaged lunch boxes are food containers and must be labeled with a food quality and safety market access mark.