Food grade white plastic must for safe packaging

LAHORE: Plastic food packaging is cost effective and safer to pass on edibles to the consumers; it however, could be a health hazard if food specific packing is not used to prevent contamination of food with injurious substances.

After being fed substandard food for 65 years, awareness about the quality of food is fast gaining ground among consumers as the Punjab Food Authority started conducting raids on food outlets in the province.

Following Punjab, the Sindh Assembly has also established Sindh Food Authority to ensure supply of pure and healthy food to the consumers. We see plastic packing being used in beverages, soft drinks, ketchup, bakery items, water, jams, marmalades, vinegar, juices, and edible oil.

Plastic packaging has emerged as a multibillion rupee industry. The Punjab Food Authority (PFA) has at least started checking the quality of food packages, and in case of plastics they want assurance that food grade plastic was used.

But this is not enough, as food technologists point out that though the first and foremost condition in is that the plastic used is of food grade, the behaviour of plastic also varies with each edible item.

Plastic is a porous material. In some cases, the liquid in the pack could seep into the container but nothing goes out of the plastic material into that edible liquid.

In other cases, there is free flow of edible material entering the plastic packing and particles of plastic going into the edible substance. This is called migration.

The manufacturers of plastic food packaging should be supplied with the food sample to be packed. They will then conduct the migration test, and in case it is positive, they will add a layer of some other material to prevent migration.

This will certainly increase the cost, but the food will remain safe. The migration test is performed in laboratories set by some multinationals that are in the food business. Hardly any domestic manufacturer of plastic packaging get these tests conducted from these laboratories.

All food producers, while procuring plastic packing for their products, seek a certificate from the supplier that the material used is food grade. The supplier (plastic packaging manufacturer) is provided by the foreign plastic granule supplier.

After the raid by PFA, some manufacturers realised that issuing this certificate was risky because of the way even food grade plastic reacts with different food products.

Their studies revealed that each plastic packaging supplier must establish a testing laboratory to conduct different tests on the plastic materials they use.

For the migration test, the packaging companies can outsource to the accredited private laboratories, because it is unfeasible to maintain a migration test laboratory for small and medium producers.

All this information was passed on by a medium-sized food packaging manufacturer to the PFA. The PFA recognised the importance of this information and started making compliance rules.

It was found that no food product could be stored in blue drums that are seen at most food processing units and at roadside restaurants in which pickles and lassi are stocked.

As the first step, the PFA made it mandatory for all manufacturers of this product to emboss a warning that this product is not suitable for use or stocking of food items as the plastic used is not food grade.

Food grade plastic is of transparent colour as pet bottles are or white. This regulation is complied by only one manufacturer that brought the issue to the PFA as corporate social responsibility.

Food technologists point out that the 19 litre water containers supplied by all the companies selling purified water should be discarded by the concerned companies after five to six refills.

They said those who used the containers for a long time, sold their water at half the price of premium brands that replaced the containers in time. They also advised the consumers not to reuse pet bottles for a long time as they might get infected with bacteria.

The food technologists advise to use glass bottles for cooling water in refrigerators, which should be boiled weekly to kill germs.

The blue coloured bulk water storage tanks are also not suitable for pure water storage. In the developed world, we do see blue-coloured water storage tanks but they are double layered. The inner layer that comes in contact with water is of white food grade plastic. The difference in cost in not more than 20 percent.