Styrofoam boxes are made of PS plastic. When hot food is stored in them, the toxic monostyrene produced can cause liver damage and other diseases. Do not use a microwave to heat food in a Styrofoam box.

This is a guide to ensuring food safety in using foam boxes to store and preserve food, recently announced by the Food Safety Department (Ministry of Health). Accordingly, foam boxes are widely used in the world, but if used incorrectly, they can cause toxins that have a negative impact on health.

People should not use foam boxes to store hot food, food containing grease, pickles... Photo: Thien Chuong.

Styrofoam boxes are made from polystyrene (PS) with 95% air and 5% PS, so they are very light and used to store and preserve food.

According to Dr. Lam Quoc Hung, Department of Food Safety (Ministry of Health), Styrofoam boxes pose a risk to users' health due to lead and cadmium contamination if the raw materials used to produce the boxes are not pure and are contaminated with styrene and Ethylbenzene. Therefore, to ensure safety, people should only use boxes with clear origins, ensuring compliance with food safety regulations as recommended by the manufacturer. Boxes made from PS plastic are only used to contain and preserve food at temperatures below 70 degrees Celsius.

Do not use Styrofoam boxes to store and preserve food for a long time, they should only be used once. Do not use Styrofoam boxes to store hot foods and drinks, foods high in fat, cooking oil, boiling water, pickles (pickles, vinegar salads, lemon juice, lemon tea, etc.). Do not use a microwave to heat food stored in Styrofoam boxes.

In principle, plastic items are only used to store cold food, however, many Vietnamese people use them to store hot food, which is taboo. When storing hot food, the amount of monostyrene (a toxic substance) in PS plastic is released more and more, which will damage the liver, as well as many other diseases. Not only high temperature, this type of plastic when exposed to grease, salt, acid... will cause toxins that are harmful to humans.

In 2010, the authorities launched a massive campaign to check the quality of foam boxes on the market. The test results of some foam box samples on the market at that time showed that polystyrene contamination was 8,000-10,000 times below the allowable threshold.

According to VnExpress - LY