Attention Catering Businesses: Are You Using Food Plastic Bags Correctly?

Food takeaway plastic bags are a high-frequency food-contact product used by catering businesses. Choosing the wrong bag, a temperature mismatch, or substandard materials can cause plasticizers and harmful substances to migrate into food at high temperatures, creating food safety risks.

To further

standardize the use of food packaging bags in the catering sector

and its management, and consolidate operators' primary responsibility,

the following guidance on the use of food-grade plastic bags

is hereby provided:

The following plastic bags are prohibited

from being used to hold food

01

It is strictly prohibited to use non-food-grade plastic bags, industrial plastic bags, or recycled colored plastic bags to hold any food intended for direct consumption;

02

It is strictly prohibited to use PVC (polyvinyl chloride) plastic bags to hold cooked food, hot food, oily food, or food for direct consumption (at high temperatures or in contact with oil, toxic plasticizers are highly prone to leaching);

03

It is strictly prohibited to use "three-no" plastic bags (no manufacturer, no certificate of conformity, no food-contact marking) for food packaging;

04

It is strictly prohibited to let the printed side or ink side come into direct contact with food, so as to avoid contamination of food by ink and residues.

Choose food-grade plastic bags of the corresponding material

according to the temperature of the food to be packed

For room-temperature and low-temperature foods (0℃—40℃) such as cold dishes, braised foods, pastries, and cooked food after standing to cool, use food-grade plastic bags made of PE (polyethylene).

For freshly cooked foods (60℃—100℃) such as hot dishes, hot soup, congee, and fried foods, use high-temperature-resistant food-grade plastic bags made of PP (polypropylene).

For frozen and quick-frozen foods (-20℃ and below) such as pre-made frozen foods, frozen ingredients, and quick-frozen semi-finished products, use special low-temperature-resistant food-grade plastic bags.

Food safety is no small matter; a small packaging bag is the "first line of defense" for food safety. All catering operators are requested to strictly fulfill their primary responsibility, choose bags by temperature, use them by material, and operate to standard, preventing food safety hazards from the details and jointly safeguarding the public's food safety.