The latest authoritative testing shows that 15 of the 16 brands of PVC cling film commonly sold in markets in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou contain the nationally banned plasticizer DEHA. This kind of plasticizer can penetrate from the plastic wrap into the packaged high-fat food at room temperature, causing great harm to the human endocrine system. Among the 16 brands of PVC cling film, 15 contain the plasticizer DEHA banned by the state. The reporter’s months-long investigation found that the PVC cling film production industry is shrouded in multiple layers of fog. Behind the fog is a problem involving plastic wrap. industry and its upstream chemical industry.
According to the official announcement of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, the plasticizer allowed to be added to PVC cling film during the production process is DOA. Investigations by reporters in Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and other places also found that the raw materials used by four cling film manufacturers that were found to contain state-banned plasticizers were indeed labeled as DOA. During the interview in Jiangsu, I saw DOA raw material barrels from the same company in the production workshops of Wuxi Xindi Paper and Plastic Products Co., Ltd. and Taicang Junshijie Packaging Materials Co., Ltd. The raw material barrels were marked as produced by Tongxiang Chemical Co., Ltd.
In Tongxiang Chemical Co., Ltd., Xu Xiaofeng, the business manager of the company's marketing department, said that plasticizers are exclusively supplied by the company to cling film companies such as Wuxi Xindi, Shanghai Junshi and Linpac. At the same time, he also admitted that the DOA they provided did contain DEHA, which was unavoidable in every plasticizer production factory.
In order to verify whether what Manager Xu said was true, the reporter tested the DOA samples provided by Tongxiang Chemical Co., Ltd. and samples from another DOA manufacturer. The results showed that the samples produced by these two companies were There is no DOA ingredient in DOA, but the content of DEHA is very high. It turns out that the so-called DOA is actually DEHA.
According to experts, the raw material for producing DOA is n-octanol, and the raw material for producing DEHA is isooctyl alcohol. There is a huge price difference between the two raw materials. The price of n-octanol per ton is about 12,000 yuan, while the price of isooctyl alcohol per ton is only about 8,000 yuan. In order to reduce costs, companies use isooctyl alcohol as raw material for production. This statement was also recognized by Xu Xiaofeng, business manager of the marketing department of Tongxiang Chemical Co., Ltd. He said that in order to cope with the fierce market competition, the industry is using isooctyl alcohol to produce cling film plasticizers.
At this point, the source of the nationally banned plasticizer DEHA contained in 15 brands of PVC cling film has finally come to light. According to the regulations of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and relevant national standards, the plasticizer allowed to be used in PVC cling film is mainly DOA, and the raw material of DOA is n-octanol. In order to reduce costs, upstream chemical companies that produce DOA use isooctyl alcohol, but what they produce is actually DEHA, which is banned by the state. Upstream chemical companies then sell DEHA to plastic wrap manufacturers in the name of DOA, ultimately producing plastic wrap that is extremely harmful to human health. The reporter learned that in fact, as early as 2005, eight years ago, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine issued a document specifically banning DEHA. In 2011, Beijing Kaifa Environmental Protection Technology Consulting Center detected that the PVC cling film of five companies contained DEHA. Subsequently, the media exposed it. , law enforcement agencies investigated and dealt with. However, the products of the five PVC cling film companies that were involved in the incident were still found to contain DEHA in this test.
In the view of food safety expert Dong Jinshi, this is a deliberate act by some cling film manufacturers. Although they know that the plasticizer contains DEHA, they have reached a tacit agreement with upstream chemical companies and still purchase this kind of plastic wrap in the name of DOA. Inexpensive plasticizer.
The reason why companies knowingly commit crimes is the lack of standards. As an important food packaging material, PVC plastic wrap has never had a national standard. The biggest advantage of not having a national standard is that companies can choose their own standards, thus avoiding the detection of nationally banned plasticizers and the restrictions that national standards may impose on the scope of use.
Food safety expert Dong Jinshi said that relevant agencies drafted a standard for self-adhesive cling film in 2009, covering PE, PVC and other cling film types.
The national standard for cling film, which was originally supposed to take effect on December 1, 2009, was postponed twice due to various reasons. To this day, it is still sleeping in the information cabinet. At present, food cling film is divided into several categories according to its material: polyethylene, also known as PE cling film, polyvinyl chloride, also known as PVC cling film. Among them, PE cling film is mainly sold in various supermarkets, while PVC cling film is mainly used for food packaging in the fresh and bulk food areas of supermarkets. In addition, it is mostly purchased and used by group customers such as various hotels and restaurants. Among all types of plastic wrap, PVC has the largest market share due to its low price, accounting for about 60% to 70%.
Yang Weimin, an expert member of the China Packaging Federation Training Expert Committee, told reporters that due to the needs of the production process, a large amount of plasticizers, commonly known as plasticizers, are added during the production process of PVC cling film. Plasticizers are insoluble in cold water, but will dissolve out above 60 degrees Celsius or in grease.
After a random survey of ten large and medium-sized supermarkets in Beijing, the reporter found that half of the supermarkets use PVC plastic wrap to directly wrap raw meat and cooked food. Most of the sales staff think that as long as the hot cooked food is not wrapped, it will be fine. Use PVC plastic wrap. Experts remind consumers that it is best to use PE plastic wrap. If you use PVC plastic wrap, it is best not to be used directly for packaging meat, cooked food, and foods containing oil, and it is not suitable to be heated directly in a microwave oven.
How to identify PVC cling film and PE cling film? Experts’ advice to consumers is: 1. Look at the color. The yellowish color of the whole roll is made of PVC, and the white one is made of PE. 2. Rub with hands. PE cling film generally has poor viscosity and is easy to open after being rubbed by hand, while PVC cling film has better viscosity and is difficult to unfold when rubbed by hand. 3. Burn it. When PE cling film is ignited with fire, it burns quickly and will not go out even if it is removed from the fire source; while PVC cling film is not easy to ignite and will go out after it is removed from the fire source and has a pungent odor.