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What does the number on the lunch box mean?

Have you noticed the numbers on these lunch boxes?

At present, most of the utensils used for take-out food on the market are made of plastic. The safety of these disposable plastic tableware is related to the plastic material used. So, have you noticed? There are digital signs on plastic boxes seen in daily life.

So what do these numbers represent?

They represent different materials of plastic, generally represented by numbers 01 to 07.

01: Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), use: to make mineral water bottles, carbonated beverage bottles, etc. This material has a heat resistance of 70°C.

02: High-density polyethylene (HDPE), commonly used to make plastic containers for cleaning products, bath products, etc., can withstand a high temperature of 110 degrees Celsius, and plastic bags that indicate food can be used to hold food.

03: Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), often used to make building materials, is a toxic plastic product. "Toxic" mainly refers to single-molecule vinyl chloride that has not been fully polymerized during the production process, and harmful substances in plasticizers. These two substances are easy to precipitate when encountering high temperatures.

04: Low-density polyethylene (LDPE), commonly used to make cling film, plastic film, etc., has low heat resistance. When the temperature exceeds 110°C, it will melt and leave some plastic preparations that cannot be decomposed by the human body. Therefore, by wrapping food with this kind of cling film for heating, the fat in the food can easily dissolve the harmful substances in the cling film.

05: Polypropylene (PP) is often used to make special lunch boxes for microwave ovens. It can withstand 130°C. It is the only plastic box that can be placed in microwave ovens and can be reused after cleaning.

Special attention should be paid to some special lunch boxes for microwave ovens. The box body is made of No. 05 PP, but the lid is made of No. 06 PS (polystyrene). PS has good transparency, but it is not resistant to high temperatures and cannot be placed together with the box. Into the microwave.

06: Polystyrene (PS), often used to make bowls of instant noodle boxes, fast food boxes, heat-resistant and cold-resistant. But it cannot be put into a microwave oven to avoid the release of chemicals due to high temperature, and it cannot be used to contain strong acids and strong alkaline substances.

07: Other types of plastics (PC), which contain bisphenol A which is harmful to health.

Among the materials in 01-07, only 02, 05, 06, namely high-density polyethylene (HDPE), polypropylene (PP), and polystyrene (PS) are relatively safe to make lunch boxes.

In addition to these numbers on the lunch box, when consumers buy disposable plastic tableware products, they can also check whether there are QS marks, production license numbers, manufacturers, production addresses and other information on the plastic boxes to improve product quality assurance. When purchasing, try to choose disposable plastic tableware with a smooth surface and uniform color and colorless and transparent products without decorative patterns. Try not to choose products that are too soft.

more info: //www.nblinhua.com/