Plastic bags are an indispensable item in daily life, which brings convenience to our daily life. Many people have the habit of buying food and storing it in the refrigerator with a plastic bag after buying it.
But some people feel that plastic bags are "chemicals" and are not safe to come into contact with food. There are also rumors on the Internet that if the food is put in the refrigerator together with the plastic bag, it is easy to cause some harmful substances in the plastic bag to penetrate into the food, and after eating, it will be transferred to the human body, causing harm to the human body. What's more, the plastic bag of food is called a "health killer", saying that it is easy to precipitate harmful substances by putting the plastic bag of food directly into the refrigerator, especially the red, blue and black colored plastic bags, which are not only toxic but also may increase the risk of cancer, and long-term this habit is equivalent to chronic suicide, which is harmful to the body!
So, does the inconspicuous plastic bag and food directly put in the refrigerator really cause so much harm to health?
As a plastic product, the plastic raw material used in plastic bags is not a pure substance, but is prepared by a variety of materials, of which the main raw materials are polyethylene, polypropylene, and then add other additives with different characteristics (such as fillers, plasticizers, lubricants, stabilizers, colorants, etc.), mix a certain proportion and put it in the mold, and then become a fixed form by heating and solidifying, and then make plastic bags.
At present, the plastic bags used on the market are mainly made of food-grade polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and non-food-grade polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
First of all, it should be clear that food-grade plastic bags must be used for food. Generally, food-grade plastic bags are colorless and transparent. However, the heat resistance of PE is not high, and if it is filled with more than 100 piping hot food, it is likely to melt and break. At a high temperature of 160-170, PP will not dissolve harmful substances and can be used for microwave heating.
The discussion on the Internet about the toxicity and harm of plastic bagged food mainly means that the plastic bags contain plasticizers, benzopyrene and other harmful ingredients, and the plastic bagged food is directly put into the refrigerator, and these harmful substances will precipitate into the food, and long-term intake of such food may increase the risk of cancer.
The use of colorants can make plastic bags appear in a variety of colors. However, some colorants in plastic bags usually contain benzopyrene, which is highly carcinogenic to humans and animals, and belongs to a class of carcinogens.
When an excess of plasticizers enters the body, it may lead to endocrine disorders and increase the risk of diseases of the reproductive system.
However, talking about toxicity aside from the dose is a hooligan! The state has strict regulations on the amount of plasticizers in plastic bags, residues and migration indicators, as long as it is a qualified and intact plastic bag purchased through formal channels, it is generally safe to use at room temperature or refrigerated temperature, and will not cause harm to human health. The national standard stipulates that the migration amount of plastic bags in contact with food shall not exceed 001mg kg, this value of migration will not cause contamination to food.
But if you accidentally buy unqualified plastic bags from unscrupulous merchants, safety cannot be guaranteed. In addition, benzopyrene is usually produced more in barbecue, high-temperature frying, smoking and other foods at home, so you should try to eat less of this kind of food and stay away from oily fumes to avoid excessive benzopyrene intake.
If you are still not at ease, the reporter of the curiosity column group of Huashang Daily has conducted a related experiment, which may be able to dispel your concerns!
A reporter from Huashang Daily has done such an experiment in conjunction with food safety testing institutions:
The reporter first bought two kinds of food-grade plastic bags with different prices and raw materials of polyethylene (PE), and then extracted plastic bags marked with special food bags in the supermarket. Then I bought 5 more kinds of vegetables, packed them in different plastic bags, and stored them in the refrigerator for a week.
A week later, the staff of the Food Safety Assessment Center of the League of Nations Quality Inspection and Inspection tested the plasticizers in these bagged vegetables through professional instruments, and the experimental results showed that the so-called harmful plasticizers were not detected in any of the five vegetables.
Relevant studies have shown that there are certain conditions for the migration of plasticizers in plastic bags, generally when inferior plastic bags encounter high-temperature, high-fat food, and close contact may lead to plasticizers migrating to food. And the process of harmful substances in plastic bags penetrating into food is very slow and takes a long time.
If the food in plastic bags is put in the refrigerator, under the condition that the refrigerator is low in temperature, basically constant temperature, and the storage time is short (only a day or two), the possibility of plasticizer migration is even smaller, and the benzopyrene is also stable under this condition. Food-grade plastic bags are generally colorless and transparent, without colorants, and there is no need to worry about containing benzopyrene.
Therefore, if you use food-grade plastic bags that meet national standards, then it will not harm your health if you put vegetables in the refrigerator.
Although there is no risk of cancer caused by plastic bags of food directly in the refrigerator, it is recommended that everyone should not do this in their daily life. This is because:
On the one hand, the sealing of the plastic bag itself is relatively poor, and most people usually do not completely tighten the bag mouth seal when loading food, so that when you put it in the refrigerator, many bacteria and microorganisms in the refrigerator will easily contaminate the food, grow wantonly in the food, bring food safety hazards, and there will also be a situation where the food smells with each other, affecting the taste and texture of the food. Exposure to air will also accelerate the oxidation of food and reduce its freshness.
On the other hand, plastic bags are less resilient and more fragile after freezing.
Many people put the food in the plastic bag directly into the freezer compartment of the refrigerator, and after freezing, the food will stick tightly to the plastic bag, especially raw meat, and the frozen plastic bag will become very brittle. If the two are separated, the plastic bag is likely to be torn apart, and the broken plastic bag residue may remain on the surface of the food, which can easily lead to the accidental ingestion of microplastics, and long-term consumption of such food is not conducive to human health.
Therefore, it is recommended that you buy some food bags or plastic wrap with sealing strips to serve rice or package food, so as to better maintain the freshness of food, avoid the spread of food flavor, and reduce the probability of some health risks. Moreover, the plastic bag and plastic wrap are also white and transparent, without colorants, and the safety factor is relatively high.
In our daily life, if we want to use plastic bags to pack food, we should pay attention to choose plastic bags marked with the words "food grade" or with knives and forks and other patterns, which are safer.
In addition, try not to use it for more than 100 hot or greasy foods, such as hot fritters, spicy tang, hot noodles, etc. in plastic bags. Although this kind of food is used in qualified plastic bags, in fact, the amount of migration under the action of high temperature is very small, generally many times less than the national allowable standard, and will not cause adverse effects on the body. However, if the merchant uses unqualified plastic bags, the quality is poor, and when the food is hot or contains oil, the plasticizer or some small organic molecules in it will easily migrate into the food and be ingested by the human body, and the higher the temperature, the greater the migration. If the thickness of the plastic bag is too thin and melts into the food, the harm is even greater.
For safety reasons, it is better to eat less high-temperature food in plastic bags, and it is very safe to use qualified plastic bags in normal temperature and low temperature environments, and there is no need to worry about the impact on health.