Paper and plastic packaging spilled harmful substances corporate giants collectively hold the rules

“Bulk noodles are packaged in paper-plastic products that are stable at room temperature, but once the temperature exceeds 65 degrees Celsius or when they are exposed to oily substances, the plasticizer material will overflow.” Yang Weimin, packaging technology expert at the International Food Packaging Association pointed out.

China has become the world’s largest producer and exporter of instant noodles, and its annual output is nearly 50 billion packets, accounting for about 50% of world production. On average, more than 100 million packages of instant noodles are opened every day, and 1,300 people eat instant noodles every second. Behind the huge numbers, we have to ask whether the instant noodles really contain plasticizers, where plasticizers come from, and whether instant noodles are unhealthy?

Since there are potential hazards in plasticizers, paper and plastic instant noodle barrels are also not conducive to recycling and environmental protection. Are instant noodle giants aware of the situation and why are they unwilling to make changes?

"In fact, this has a huge interest chain. Upgrading packaging is by no means a simple matter." A former unified executive group executive revealed that currently there are as many as 680 million instant noodle barrels, each costing about 0.3 yuan. If the renminbi were to be replaced with safer products, the cost of adding a dime to each bun would increase by RMB 68 million in one month, and it would increase the cost of RMB 816 million in one year.

Despite the industry's suspicions, instant noodle companies are almost silent on the cost control issue. For instant noodle companies, changing the packaging turned out to be a big deal.

Instant noodles package hidden plasticizer

Questions about the inclusion of plasticizers in instant noodles have been in existence for a long time. Associate Professor Liu Chunhong of the Food College of South China Agricultural University and colleagues published a paper pointing out that commercial instant noodles and instant rice noodles have different degrees of dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and o-benzene. Di(2-ethylhexyl)dicarboxylate (DEHP) contaminated.

Both DBP and DEHP are phthalates plasticizers that are added during plastic processing to increase the flexibility of the plastic. These chemicals, like BPA, which China has just banned from feeding bottles, are environmental hormones. After entering the human body, they can interfere with the human endocrine system and the reproductive system and are suspected to be related to precocious puberty in children.

However, it is always doubtful why plasticizers are contained in instant noodles as foods. Dong Jinshi, a food safety expert and executive vice president of the International Food Packaging Association, said that the plasticizer ingredients found in the bread cake may be related to the outer plastic bag or paper drum.

Dong Jinshi stated that Plasticizer (Phthalate) is a common softener. If polyethylene plastic is added to the plasticizer, it will become softer, and the more plastic products needed for softer plastic products, the more plasticizers will be added. The commonly used cling film, a non-additive PE (polyethylene) material, but its poor adhesion; another widely used is PVC (polyvinyl chloride) cling film, a large number of plasticizers In order to make the PVC material soft and increase the viscosity, it can be applied to the packaging of fresh foods.

However, plasticizers are insoluble in water-soluble oils, so when they come in contact with oils and fats or containers, they leak out on contact with them. The overflow of plasticizers is also related to the time and temperature of the contact.

Dong Jinshi stated that paper products have been widely used in food packaging, especially in the field of disposable food packaging, because their raw materials can be recycled, they can be easily printed, easily recycled, and easily degraded. However, most of the paper products are actually paper and plastic products. For example, instant noodle paper drums on the market are not what consumers think are 100% paper. Generally, appropriate plasticizers are added to achieve moderate softness. The instant noodles themselves are instant noodles which are high-calorie, high-fat fried foods, which have a very high fat content and a high water temperature at the time of brewing, thus causing the plasticizer to overflow.

The paper and plastic products are not as environmentally-friendly and recyclable as everyone thinks, because the plastic components are very difficult to be recycled. Therefore, paper-plastic product wastes must first undergo paper-plastic separation. This is not only time-consuming and costly, but also costly. In this way, the instant noodle drums are often covered with oil, and the paper-plastic products that are contaminated with grease cannot be recycled. Therefore, such products have little value for recycling and are also not conducive to environmental protection.

After the occurrence of the plasticizer incident in Taiwan in 2011, some experts had stated that the content of DBP and DEHP in food and beverages is very low and will not cause great harm to the human body.

In this regard, Li Shuguang, professor of the School of Public Health at Fudan University who has been studying plasticizers for many years, once said, “But what if people drink and eat instant noodles?” In the current risk assessment of plasticizers, the most important issue is that The “total exposure assessment”, that is, the total amount of plasticizers people ingested from different foods is unknown, and the biggest risk currently lies in this “don’t know”.

Corporate giants hold industry standards

Modern instant noodles were invented in 1958 for Taiwanese man Ando Pak Fook (Ando Pak Fuk, formerly known as Ng Pak Fuk) in Taiwan. Ando Pak Fook founded Nissin Foods after inventing instant noodles. A survey of public opinion in Japan in 2000 showed that instant noodles were the most important invention of Japan in the last century, followed by karaoke.

Although instant noodles are well received in Asia, they were unable to open the market in the United States in the late 1960s. Because Americans do not have the habit of boiling water, and the tableware in their homes are mainly dish plates. In order to allow people who are not accustomed to using barrels to consume instant noodles, Nisshin Co., Ltd. invented a cup noodle made of expanded polystyrene as a container and marketed it in Japan in 1971.

In February 1972, the incident took place in Japan when the Red Army held a hostage against the police. Because the police had a glass of instant noodles on the live television broadcast, the cup surface was a hit.

Polystyrene, which is called styrofoam in Taiwan, is commonly known in Hong Kong as styrofoam, which is what the mainland calls a disposable foam plastic tableware.

At the end of the 1990s, Taiwan’s media exposed the dangers of styrofoam barrels: they were made of polystyrene added with foaming agents. If foods with high temperatures were stored, styrene monomer would be released. Substances such as long-term heavy inhalation or ingestion into the human body can cause harm to the liver and cause carcinogenicity.

The hazards of foamed tableware are far more than these, because in the production process, a large amount of foaming agents that are ozone-depleting substances are consumed, thus endangering the earth's protective umbrella—the ozone layer; this kind of lunch box has an extremely long degradation cycle and can be reached in ordinary environments. In about 200 years, white garbage mountains and white garbage rivers caused by foam tableware are everywhere; once the tableware is burned, it will produce more than 10 kinds of toxic gases, directly causing air pollution; in order to shape the material, it must be added during the production process. All kinds of additives, over time, some of which will gradually release toxic additives, causing pollution to the soil and water resources.

On January 23, 1999, the former State Economic and Trade Commission issued the "Closing Outdated Production Capacity, Processes, and Product Catalogue" to list disposable foam plastic cutlery as eliminated products; in December 2001, with the approval of the State Council, one-off hair was issued. Bubble plastic tableware was classified as a phase-out product and biodegradable tableware replaced it. In 2005, the National Development and Reform Commission eliminated 399 backward products within a limited time, and disposable foam plastic tableware was again listed among them.

Although it was long recognized that the damage caused by styrofoam was huge, due to the cost, it was not until 2003 that Uni-President changed the styrofoam barrel into a cardboard drum. In the following ten years, the brands of instant noodles in barrels and cups were basically packaged in paper drums and film.

Although the packaging of paper and plastic materials is superior to styrofoam in many respects, plasticizers are always the sword of Damocles hanging on instant noodle companies. However, when reporters called instant noodle companies, the answers were: Our packaging meets national standards.

Since we know the dangers of plasticizers, and the instant noodle barrels made of paper and plastic are not conducive to recycling and environmental protection, why aren't instant noodle giants willing to make changes?

An unnamed former unified group executive said that the current monthly demand for instant noodles is as high as 680 million, and each cost is about RMB 0.3. If it is replaced with a more secure product, even if each face bucket To increase the cost of a dime, we need to increase the cost of RMB 68 million in one month and increase the cost of RMB 816 million in one year.

"On the other hand, in addition to the problem of cost, there is a huge interest chain, such as instant noodle companies are pressing the money of packaging manufacturers, so changing the packaging is all things that affect the whole body," said the aforementioned person.

Bottled packaging materials need to be upgraded

At the 8th World Instant Noodles Summit, the president of the World Instant Noodles Association, Ando Hiriki, said that in 2011, 98.2 billion packs of instant noodles were sold globally, and China's output was 48.38 billion packs, accounting for more than half of world sales.

Wang Liming, director of the Consumer Products Industry Department of the Ministry of Industry, stated that China has become the world’s largest producer and consumer of instant noodles. On average, more than 100 million instant noodles are opened every day, and 1,300 people eat instant noodles every second.

Behind the huge numbers, instant noodle food problems are frequent. The “high-calorie, high-fat, high-preservative” three-high issues have always been accompanied by the development of instant noodles. Now that instant noodle packaging has become a problem, what will the instant noodle industry become known for?

Yang Weimin said that he can try to replace the current paper and plastic materials with PP. In addition to non-toxic and odorless, PP thermoformed food packaging containers have a heat resistance up to 130°C (and foaming PS is only 80°C), and are resistant to boiling water, high temperature stability, and common organic and organic solvents. It has little effect on it.

"PP material is cheap and can be recycled into plastic products, so it is an ideal alternative to instant noodles," says Yang Weimin.

According to Zhang Jingwen, chairman of Taiwan's Jinzhao Biochemical Technology Co., Ltd., PLA corn corneal paper cups have an advantage. Zhang Jingwen stated that PLA polylactic acid is a new type of biodegradable material made from starch raw materials proposed by renewable plant resources (such as corn). Starch raw materials are made into lactic acid through a fermentation process and converted into polylactic acid through chemical synthesis.

"PLA has good biodegradability and can be completely degraded by microorganisms in the natural world after use, and ultimately generates carbon dioxide and water, and does not pollute the environment. This is very favorable for the protection of the environment and is recognized as an environmentally friendly material. When incinerating polylactic acid, Its combustion calorific value is the same as that of incineration papers, and it will never release toxic gases such as nitrides and sulfides. Although the cost is slightly higher, I believe that more paper-plastic products will be replaced by PLA in the future.” said Zhang Jingwen. .

The aforementioned person who declined to be named also stated that with the rapid advancement of materials science and technology, biomaterials such as corn and straw can completely replace plastic materials, and it is hoped that instant noodles manufacturers will upgrade their packaging as soon as possible to reduce food safety risks.