Challenges in the development of food packaging

Although China's Food Safety Law of the People's Republic of China, which was implemented in 2009, incorporated food packaging into the scope of food safety, the issue of food packaging safety has not caused widespread public concern. In recent years, with the improvement of consumer safety awareness and the strengthening of national supervision, food packaging has gradually received attention.

In order to strengthen the safety of food packaging, AQSIQ extended QS (Qualitysafety) to food plastic packaging, containers, tools and other products as early as 2006. Therefore, the current QS is not only for the food itself, but also for food packaging. It is equivalent to the EU cup fork logo, Germany's knife and fork logo, to prove that the product has passed the quality inspection of the health supervision department and the national quality supervision department, and can guarantee the health of consumers.

However, in comparison, China's food packaging materials manufacturing companies have a vague understanding of the safety of packaging materials itself, lack of attention, and weak legal awareness. For example, currently there are more than 1,000 manufacturers of melamine tableware in China, but less than 100 companies have access to QS. At the same time, the safety hazards caused by food packaging, such as the Gansu potato chip package incident and the children's tainted milk bottle incident, continue to irritate consumers' fragile nerves. Therefore, it is imperative to strengthen the awareness of food packaging safety in the whole society, strengthen the inspection, inspection and supervision of food packaging materials, and strengthen the industry self-discipline of food packaging companies.

From the perspective of production and processing, the hazards of food packaging can also be divided into two aspects. First, the harm caused by the material itself. The vast majority of packaging materials are chemical products, and their materials are inherently hidden. For example, when the plastics produce cracked monomers at high temperatures, heavy metals in the metal materials can be transferred to the food through packaging. Second, the harm caused by illegal additives in the production process. For example, some manufacturers use recycled paper to produce paper for food packaging, and at the same time use fluorescent brighteners to increase the whiteness of paper. Studies have shown that fluorescent whitening agents enter the human body and greatly increase the risk of cancer in humans. Possible offending additives are phthalates, which are widely used as plasticizers in toys, food packaging materials, medical blood bags, hoses, and cleaners. Once dissolved into the human body will produce a similar role of estrogen on the human body, interfere with human endocrine, endanger the male reproductive system, increase the risk of breast cancer in women, but also endanger the liver and kidneys of children, causing children's precocious puberty.

In terms of consumer awareness, domestic consumers are more concerned with food itself, focusing on shelf life, food labels, and lack of understanding of the safety of food packaging. While foreign consumers have a stronger sense of safety, they will consciously purchase food packaging products with food safety labels and use them strictly in accordance with warning signs on packaging products; when there is a problem with food packaging, consumers usually also Actively contact the manufacturer or the local supervisory department to inquire, question and even complain, and even use legal means to protect their own interests.

From the perspective of government supervision, EU countries established safety regulations for food packaging materials as early as the 1950s, and at the same time carried out research on the impact of packaging on food. Until now, the EU has established a relatively complete legal system for food packaging materials. The regulation of food packaging is also more stringent.

Therefore, it is necessary to learn from foreign advanced food packaging concepts and management experience. For example, the presence of bisphenol A in baby bottles is a harmful substance that may occur during the production of polycarbonate (PC) milk bottles. It can cause breast cancer, heart disease and other illnesses. Although China's content of bisphenol A is limited, the standards set by foreign countries are more stringent than those at home, and the limits are even lower. For production companies, foreign countries will combine quality management and safety management, and have a strict set of requirements for raw materials, auxiliary materials, supplier qualifications, production processes, process parameters, and finished product control.

In general, there is still a big gap between food packaging and the first line of defense for human safety. The food packaging industry still needs to take more solid steps.