Recently, the 5th China Food Safety Forum was held in Beijing. Plastic food packaging has become a hot topic at the sub-forum on technological innovation and maintenance of food safety. Guests at the conference unanimously emphasized that as a mainstream food packaging product, plastic food packaging plays an increasingly important role in ensuring food safety, and the improvement of standards is an important technical measure to ensure the safety and reliability of food packaging materials.
Plastic Packaging for Food Safety Escort
Tang Saichen, former senior engineer at the China National Light Industry Information Center, believes that there are many factors that endanger food safety. Among them, the lack of better-performing packaging materials, refrigeration technology, and preservation technology are the most serious problems in food storage and sales. One of the factors. According to reports, developing countries have lost more than 50% of their total food production each year. About 30% of China's food, fruits and vegetables are rotted and spoiled in the sales process each year. The use of plastic food packaging can not only ensure the safety of food, but also greatly reduce food waste and loss. Currently, in the total food packaging consumption, the amount of plastic packaging exceeds the sum of paper, metal, glass, and other traditional packaging materials, accounting for more than 50%.
According to Tang Saizhen, in recent years, with the advancement and breakthrough of technology, some functional plastic food packagings such as high barrier, cooking resistance, oxidation resistance, and mildewproof and antiseptic have been promoted, which has greatly prolonged the shelf life of foods and reduced the occurrence of mildew. Loss and waste caused by rot and rot. For example, when cucumbers are wrapped in cling film, the shelf life can be extended from 3 days to 14 days. For example, even if the maximum amount of preservatives is added, the shelf life is only one week. After the new plastic film packaging is used, the moon cake's shelf life is improved. After more than two months, some may even reach six months.
In the days when food safety is widely concerned, the safety of plastic food packaging materials is constantly facing various challenges. It is particularly important to correctly evaluate the health and safety of food packaging materials. In this regard, Tang Saichen emphasized: "Every plastic package that meets the standards can be used with confidence. For some false rumors in the society, we should analyze and judge it in a scientific manner."
Set standards to ensure the safety of plastic bags
Plastic packaging may also introduce some sources of pollution while protecting food from outside pollution. How to prevent packaging materials from introducing harmful substances during production and processing is a problem that Wang Zhutian, the chief assistant to the National Food Safety Risk Assessment Center, is most concerned about. Wang Zhutian emphasized that the standards and regulations concerning plastic food packaging are a firewall for the safety of plastic food packaging. In the field of food packaging materials, the country has strict requirements at the legal level. At present, there are more than 200 standards in the field of food safety in China that are related to food packaging materials; in addition to standards, there are also some sectoral regulations that involve plastic food packaging materials. In these laws and regulations, there are strict regulations on the types and doses of raw materials used for food packaging such as resins and additives. As long as the production is strictly in accordance with relevant standards, the safety of plastic food packaging can be guaranteed.
The assessment of the safety of food packaging materials is the most complex part of risk assessment. According to Wang Zhutian, in order to standardize the production and use of additives, monomers, resins, and coatings for food packaging materials and packaging materials to ensure the safety of plastic food packaging, after nearly three years, the National Food Safety Risk Assessment Center has completed 3000 The cleaning of many food packaging materials with resins and additives has been strictly screened and more than 600 new varieties have been allowed to enter the standard catalogue.
“At present, we are developing general rules for the production of food packaging materials, general requirements for migration testing, and soaking test methods, and GB9685-2008 will also be launched again. All these efforts have played a role in protecting food safety and promoting the healthy development of the food packaging industry. Important role." Wang Zhutian said.
Recycling for sustainable development
With the large-scale use of plastic packaging materials in food, plastic food packaging is also faced with the challenge of enabling itself to achieve sustainable development while safeguarding food safety. Plastics are derived from petroleum and belong to non-renewable resources. Because plastics have stable performance, they are difficult to degrade on their own. Disposing them arbitrarily will cause pollution to the environment. Therefore, how to dispose of waste plastics has become one of the bottlenecks restricting the healthy development of the plastic packaging industry.
Li Peisheng, Director of the China Plastics Tableware Joint Conference Office and Honorary Chairman of the Green Packing Committee of the Chinese Academy of Environmental Sciences, said: “At present, China’s packaging waste has become the fifth largest source of pollution, and the recycling rate of packaging is only 30% to 40%, while the German packaging The recovery rate of waste is as high as 83%, and the gap is huge. To achieve low-carbon development and green development, plastic food packaging must solve the problem of recycling of plastic food packaging waste."
Regarding the concern about whether the “white pollution†will come back after the lifting of disposable PS foaming utensils, Li Peisheng clearly stated that the culprit that caused “white pollution†first was not the disposable habit of PS foaming utensils itself but the random disposal of wastes and management. Bad; Secondly, the “3-point project†implemented by Shanghai proves that recycling is the most effective way to solve “white pollutionâ€. Third, the development and introduction of advanced recovery and disposal technologies also provide technical support for solving “white pollutionâ€. Li Peisheng also revealed that the relevant state departments are formulating new regulations and regulations, and plans to include waste lunch boxes, plastic bags, etc. in the compulsory recycling catalog. The implementation of these measures will all play an important role in reducing the environmental pollution of waste plastic food packaging and promoting industrial low carbon, recycling and sustainable development.