Friday 24 July 2009

Plastics or not..

Plastic- solution or not?
Wrapid and Moving Food views are ours…of course you choose yours…

When you say plastic is everywhere you mean everywhere, in food containers; in bottles used to feed infants; in raincoats; in eye glasses and safety helmets; in phones; in clothing; in toys; in bandages; and in cosmetics and some medicines.

Many scientists say man made components in plastics- particularly in a group of compounds called phthalates and a chemical known as bisphenol A or BPA - can leach harmful chemicals, which are absorbed into the body. Some even blame plastics for increased rates of cancer, asthma, neurological disorders and infertility.

The Centre for Health Environment and Justice (CHEJ) speaking recently in Dubai said they were seeking a total ban on these consumer products. Needless to say our plastic and related vinyl industry refers to this as scare campaigns.

So for us in the Food Catering arena and at Wrapid, we discuss at length what we can do what does this mean for our brand :
Firstly BPA, its in bottle tops to dental sealant to food packaging, some 93% of us will have BPA in our urine (survey in 2008 on 3k people) this means it is in your body chemistry and body tissue and blood stream, arguably for decades….this could mean that our bodies know how to expel it or not? Before it hits our urine what is it doing to our tissue?
Clearly we know BPA’s leach out of containers when heated, so from bags of pasta sauce to soups to gastronorms of ingredients would be affected in Catering Services industry, but also in ready meal containers. How many products on pub to restaurant products come chilled or frozen that are micro-waved or reheated in their plastic containers in our domestic or catering ovens?
Phthaltes, the other component in plastic is even more controversial, of this compound two are under international scrutiny, DEHP, found mostly in medical products and DINP found in toys, plastic cutlery, some containers in the airline catering field. These affect the reproductive system and endocrine systems….not in Wrapid packaging or in our ingredients by the way…

The debate continues but here are the bullet points:

1. Do not place plastics into any hot environment
2. Remove food from plastic wrap/trays/containers before thawing or reheating in a microwave
3. Check recycling codes for clues, Code 3 indicates types of phthalates, known as DEHA, code 7 has BPA
4. Canned Foods contain in their lining BPA’s too
5. Avoid use of polycarbonates or polyvinyl chloride (PVC) both contain BPA’s, choose containers with codes 1, 2, 4 or 5
6. If you use Nalgene Bottles, sippy cups (used for coffee /soup vending) or water bottles, do not heat, warm or add or contain heated liquid in them…in storage above 28 degrees C results in contamination…
7. Even nail polish, girls contains phthalates!

∆ If the triangle has a 1 in it with PETE underneath - 2 in it with HDPE – relatively safe.

If you it has 5 or 4 inside the triangle and under 5 PP or under 4 LDPE also relatively safe.

Wrapid just cares, so we inform you, Moving Food (movingfood.com)advices Uni's to Retailers on these issues..

1 comment:

  1. My biggest problem with plastic is the long term impact on the environment. Even Enviro friendly plastic bags takes decades to 'decompose' and then they only break down into smaller pieces. I'd have everything wrapped in paper given the chance! Why do retailers have this obsession with plastic?

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