Easily contaminated from plastic bags and fast food containers

Soybean water, rice, and hot soup are still calmly stored in plastic bags, foam boxes, and plastic boxes by shop owners to sell to consumers.

With low cost and convenience, nylon bags, foam boxes, and plastic boxes are commonly used to contain food and drinks in all markets and restaurants in Hanoi as well as other provinces and cities across the country.

At many markets in Hanoi, soy milk, tofu pudding, hot soup, etc. are kept in plastic bags by vendors and displayed for almost an hour, but when held, they still feel hot, and many bags even have a strong plastic smell.

Plastic bags are used to hold food while it is still hot.

Many small traders justify that selling items costing a few thousand dongs without using plastic bags would result in very little profit. Besides, the cost is very cheap and convenient to use…

At restaurants near the Hanoi University of Industry, a regular meal costs only 12,000-20,000 VND. All hot rice, fried food, hot soup... are contained in styrofoam boxes. With prices ranging from only 300-500 VND/box, restaurants often use them to store food if customers want to take it home or have it delivered.

Grilled duck, porridge, street food, hot sticky rice shops, etc. also use plastic and foam boxes to store hot food. According to the shop owners, the food will not be hot enough to reach 100 degrees Celsius when put in the box, so it is not harmful to health.

“Many shops put the tofu pudding and soy milk in plastic bags right after cooking. Many times I buy soy milk and hold it all day long, it still feels warm in my hand,” said Ms. Tam in Minh Khai ward.

Using plastic bags to store hot food can easily release toxic substances that are not good for your health.

Knowing that styrofoam and plastic boxes are harmful to health, Chung, a student at Thai Nguyen University, had to buy them because his room did not have cooking utensils available.

“Every time I buy rice, the restaurant owner always puts hot rice and hot soup in styrofoam boxes or plastic bags. Sometimes the rice in the styrofoam boxes even smells of chemicals,” the male student shared.

The Food Safety Department has recommended not to use foam boxes to store hot food, greasy drinks, fried foods, salads and hot and sour drinks such as lemon tea, because high temperatures combined with high acid content increase the risk of styrene (a chemical used to produce the material used to make foam boxes) contamination. Foam boxes are for single use only, if food is stored, it should be cooled before being put into the box.

Engineer Vu Tan Canh, Department of Polymer and Composite Materials, Institute of Materials Science (Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology) said that, in principle, plastic items are only used to store cold food. When storing hot food, the amount of monostyrene (a toxic substance) in this type of plastic is released more and more, causing damage to the liver and many other diseases. Not only high temperature, this type of plastic when exposed to oil, salt, acid... will cause toxins that are harmful to humans.

According to Professor Dr. Nguyen Van Khoi, Institute of Chemistry, the quality of plastic on the market today is uncontrolled. Food and drink products made from recycled plastic are very dangerous. Although the toxicity is not yet known, if the product is made from waste plastic, users are at high risk of infection. Many types of plastic bags are still like this after being baked. In addition, we cannot control the additives used to produce recycled plastic such as stone powder, plasticizers, etc. Besides, plastic made from waste contains many toxic beoxides, many impurities, is unhygienic, and harmful to human health. According to Dr. Khoi, plastic can be recycled, but the purpose of recycling is important, but recycling from waste to make eating utensils requires strict inspection. Discussing the issue of recycled plastic, many experts also say that plastic recycled only once will produce many toxic compounds, and recycling many times will be even more toxic. Because the amount of toxic substances produced is very low, consumers do not see the effects immediately, but if used for a long time, the toxins will gradually accumulate in the body and will affect health, even leading to cancer...

According to VNE/ VietQ