We are obviously packing food for take away business or distribution (in processing). Do we think about food safety measures during packing food? Can we use used plastic material for packing food ? The answer is NO. Plastic material in the market is used for once only. Let us have a look about the used plastic usage which you might practising right now.
Avoid using used plastic material that meant for non-food products and chemical only, no matter it is food grade or non-food grade chemical. Plastic container that keeping chemical might have made by low grade, non-food grade plastic material. The plastic material might contaminate the food. Besides, if the container is lack of washing, the food would be contaminated by the chemical. Some users modify the plastic containers by cutting, do take note that the small plastic particles might be scale out and contaminate food or drinks. Eg. Some factory modify the chemical tank to an ice scoop. This is a not acceptable in food processing.
When using plasticware to pack food, especially in hot food. Do not reuse the plasticware to pack the same product (hot food). When the plastic is designed to keep hot food. It might be designed to used once only. And, when the heat resistance of plastic is weaken, the plastic might contaminate the food.
Well, some consumers modify the broken plastic kitchenware / processing tools into another shape for other purposes. This is also not recommended, although the plasticware are kitchenware. As, the plastic particles can be peeled off.
Sometimes we saw some plastic containers, bottles or cups around us. Do avoid pouring hot water in it. As we do not know how strong does the plastic can resist on heats. So, the best solution for keeping hot drinks or food is to used stainless steel or ceramic containers / bottles / cups.
You might see sometimes people heat the packaged food inside microwave. Do you think if it is save? Yes. you can do so if you are using plastic container that is labelled with "Save for Microwave". However, you can avoid using the plastic container if you are not confident with the plastic declaration. Never use the plasticware which is meant for keeping ice cream and margerin for heating food in microwave.
Do not soak the milk botol too long in the hot water and do not pour boiling temperature water into the milk bottle. This is important as the milk bottle might could not withstand the heat and excrete the chemical in food. When the milk botol is scratched / broken, do not use it for storing milk. It should be replaced. As the milk particles would stick at the broken part, resulting the bottle couldn't being washed thoroughly.
As a conclusion, every plastic serve the purposes, some is used for once, some can be used continuously with condition. Thus, we should plan properly how to use plasticware, no matter in kitchen or in processing room.
Credit: Food Safety and Quality Division, Ministry of Health
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