The current safety status of food packaging and packaging materials

Food packaging, as the "second skin" of food, its safety in terms of raw materials, auxiliary materials, and processes will directly affect food quality, and subsequently impact human health. Since 2005, reports about food packaging containers and materials containing toxic and harmful substances have emerged one after another. These reports mainly focus on the issues of excessive toxic and harmful substances such as heavy metals, benzene, microorganisms, sulfur dioxide, formaldehyde, and plasticizers. Long-term consumption of food packaged in "toxic packaging" may lead to various diseases, such as gallstones, heavy metal poisoning, and benzene poisoning. The food packaging that hides "deadly threats" poses a potential threat to consumer health, which must draw our sufficient attention.
 
1. The issue of improper use of packaging materials
 
Packaging materials are classified into paper packaging, plastic packaging, metal packaging, ceramic packaging, glass packaging, etc. The hygiene levels of packaging materials are divided into industrial grade, food grade, and pharmaceutical grade. Materials used for food packaging should meet food grade requirements. However, many food packaging products sold and used in the market, due to their large usage and fast circulation, are produced by many small enterprises or family workshops that do not meet the conditions for producing food packaging products. These enterprises not only have poor production environments but also, in order to make profits, even use industrial-grade raw materials or toxic and harmful recycled waste materials for production. Especially for plastic products, they use waste plastics collected from garbage stations, agricultural films, hospital waste, etc., as raw materials for food packaging production. Although these recycled plastics are sterilized through high-temperature heating during processing, harmful substances such as plasticizers, stabilizers, and formaldehyde cannot be completely removed. Food packaged in such plastic products that are directly ingested can cause serious health consequences, and long-term use can lead to chronic poisoning or even cancer.
 
Paper packaging occupies a high share in packaging due to its abundant paper sources, low price, suitability for mass production, and ease of printing. However, using recycled paper for food packaging, using benzene-containing inks for printing packaging, and illegally using fluorescent whitening agents can all pose food safety risks.
 
2. The use of benzene-based solvents in printing
 
The residue of benzene-based solvents and heavy metals in inks is serious. In early 2005, a food factory in Gansu found that the potato chips produced had a strong strange smell. After testing, the strange smell came from the benzene in the food packaging bag's printing ink. The Gansu Provincial Product Quality Supervision and Inspection Center's test results showed that the benzene content in the product's packaging bag was three times the national allowable amount, which is severely excessive. If the residue of benzene exceeds the standard, it poses great harm to human health. At the same time, benzene is accumulative; once inhaled, it is difficult to expel, and over time can lead to diseases such as cancer. Currently, European and American countries no longer allow the use of benzene and heavy metal-containing materials in food packaging. The Japanese government also stipulated a few years ago that food packaging materials must not contain benzene.
 
Due to the low price of toluene, companies use it as the main raw material for blending solvents, widely used in the printing of food products such as beef jerky, milk powder, candy, marinated tofu, potato chips, and milk powder packaging bags. Some benzene residues even exceed national standards by more than ten times, equivalent to putting food into a highly toxic bag.
 
3. Illegal addition of banned additives
 
Taking disposable plastic fast food boxes as an example, many unscrupulous manufacturers add a large amount of industrial-grade calcium carbonate, talcum powder, paraffin, and other additives prohibited for use in food packaging production to reduce costs. Some unscrupulous companies even adjust the ratio of main raw materials and additives, with the usage of industrial calcium carbonate, paraffin, and other additives exceeding 50%, and some even reaching 80%. These highly filled fast food boxes, when tested for acetic acid evaporation residue and n-hexane evaporation residue according to national standards, show serious excessive indicators, even exceeding national standards by hundreds of times (the national standard is 30 mg/l). When the food temperature is high or heated in a microwave, harmful substances will dissolve into the food, and long-term intake can lead to indigestion, liver system lesions, and even gallstones, posing significant harm to health.
 
4. Discarding after use causes serious pollution to the environment
 
In addition to the safety issues of food packaging itself, discarding after use can also cause serious pollution to the environment. After food packaging is used and discarded, most of it is mixed with household waste for disposal, and only a small portion is collected and reused due to high recycling value (such as transparent mineral water bottles, etc.).
 
Commonly seen packaging products in daily life, such as ultra-thin plastic bags, cling film, milk bags, and highly filled fast food boxes, are often disposed of by landfill due to the inconvenience of sorting from household waste. However, the toxic and harmful substances in packaging products buried in the soil will cause serious harm to the soil and water quality, while plastics, rubber, and other materials that are difficult to decompose will become time bombs, threatening the health of surrounding plants, animals, and humans.