Beijing Times, map by Wu Shangnan

The once white pollution disposable foam tableware is being questioned after being banned for 14 years. A Beijing Times reporter found that polyvinyl chloride packaging products (referred to as "PVC food packaging materials") that are in direct contact with beverages and food were also lifted during the same period. Such products require the addition of plasticizers, and the reason for lifting the ban was not stated. However, PVC cling film, which is also commonly used for direct contact with food, is still listed in the "restricted category".

What standards should enterprises implement and how should consumers choose? Beijing Times reporters found that there are indeed conflicts in the regulations and standards of relevant departments on the issue of PVC food packaging products.

The chaos of PVC food packaging

In just two years, PVC food packaging materials have gone from being banned to being lifted. This packaging material has been controversial because it may contain excessive amounts of plasticizers that are harmful to the human body. It should have disappeared from the market long ago. However, in the gap between the fights between the changing industrial policies, PVC food packaging materials are still everywhere.

Under less than two years, the ban was suddenly lifted

In February 2013, the National Development and Reform Commission issued Order No. 21 to suddenly lift the ban on disposable foam tableware. At present, this policy still raises many questions from the outside world. Reporters found that Order No. 21 also clearly stated that "polyvinyl chloride (PVC) packaging products that directly contact beverages and food" were also removed from the elimination category and will be implemented from May 1 this year.

It is understood that in March 2011, the National Development and Reform Commission announced the "Guidelines for Industrial Structure Adjustment (2011 Edition)" (Order No. 9). Among them, "PVC food fresh-keeping packaging film" was listed as a restricted category, and "PVC packaging products that directly contact beverages and food" were listed as eliminated and should be eliminated immediately.

According to Article 15 of the ¡°Interim Provisions on Promoting Industrial Restructuring¡± issued by the State Council in 2005: The restricted categories are mainly backward processes and technologies, which do not meet the industry access conditions and relevant regulations, are not conducive to the optimization and upgrading of the industrial structure, and need to be supervised and transformed and the new construction of production capacity, process technology, equipment and products is prohibited; in addition, the ¡°Product Quality Law of the People¡¯s Republic of China¡± clearly stipulates that ¡°producers shall not produce products that have been explicitly eliminated by the state.¡± ¡°Sellers shall not sell products that have been explicitly eliminated and stopped from sale by the state and expired or deteriorated products.¡±

Once suspected of containing plasticizers

Dong Jinshi, Secretary-General of the International Food Packaging Association and head of Beijing Kaifa Environmental Technology Consulting Center, said in an interview with reporters that a recent investigation and understanding of wholesale markets in Beijing, Jiangsu and Guangdong regions revealed that food packaging materials such as moon cake trays sold on the market are still made of PVC.

"Plasticizers are inevitably added during the production process of PVC food packaging products," Dong Jinshi said. According to the "Sanitary Standards for the Use of Additives in Food Containers and Packaging Materials" (GB9685-2008), the scope of use of plasticizers requires "only for materials that come into contact with non-fatty foods, and not for materials that come into contact with infant food."

"When mooncakes are packed in PVC mooncake trays, the plasticizers in PVC are likely to dissolve in the oil of the mooncakes and be absorbed by the human body, posing a threat to human health," Dong Jinshi said. In addition to mooncake trays, plastic-wrapped corn that consumers love to eat is also suspected of using PVC packaging materials.

Dong Jinshi said that if plasticizers accumulate in the body for a long time, it will cause hormone imbalance, lead to a decrease in human immunity, and induce precocious puberty in children.

PVC production licenses are still being issued

Government departments have clearly banned the use of PVC food packaging products as early as two years ago. Why can reporters still find some products on the market that use PVC for outer packaging? One of the reasons is the constant changes in the policies of relevant departments.

It turned out that in 2011, the National Development and Reform Commission issued Order No. 9 to ban the production and sale of PVC food packaging materials in June of that year. On December 23 of the same year, the General Office of the Development and Reform Commission issued the "Development and Reform Office (Industry) No. 3213" document, suggesting that the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine delay the elimination of the product on the grounds that "the immediate elimination of polyvinyl chloride as a food packaging container will have a greater impact on the industry, and developed countries and regions such as the United States, Europe, and Japan have not yet banned polyvinyl chloride as a food packaging container."

Therefore, in the two years when PVC food packaging products were eliminated, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine continued to issue QS production licenses to manufacturers of disposable plastic tableware made of PVC. As of May 2013, a total of 67 PVC food tool products were certified.

The chaos of PVC cling film

It is worth noting that when the National Development and Reform Commission issued Order No. 21 to announce the lifting of the ban on PVC food packaging products, the PVC cling film, which also belongs to PVC food packaging products, was not lifted, and it was still listed as a "restricted" product.

However, even for this type of product that has been restricted, national standards and relevant regulations conflict with each other on the issue of plasticizers, and product quality leaves consumers at a loss.

The cling film on sale in the market is confusing and difficult to distinguish

Recently, reporters visited supermarkets and wholesale markets and found that the cling film sold in supermarkets is basically made of polyethylene PE and PVDC, but the wholesale market is not optimistic.

In the Great Ocean Road Agricultural Wholesale Market, reporters recently visited more than 20 stores selling cling film and found that a total of 9 different brands of cling film labeled "for food use" were found, of which 5 brands were marked as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) materials in the inner volume, 1 was marked as PE material, and 3 did not indicate the material used. Among the 5 PVC products, 3 did not indicate "cannot be used for packaging meat"; the 3 brands that did not indicate the material did not indicate whether they could be used for packaging meat. In addition, among the nine brands of plastic wrap, one brand has all foreign language logos inside; and another brand has a foreign name that is larger than the Chinese name, which clearly violates China's "Product Labeling Regulations".

Most of the merchants selling plastic wrap themselves are not fully aware of the classification and use of plastic wrap materials. Among the more than 20 merchants visited by the reporter, only one clearly told the reporter how to use the PVC plastic wrap it sells and the precautions. Another five or so told the reporter that it cannot be used for microwave heating or meat packaging. Most of the remaining merchants believe that the PVC plastic wrap they sell can be used for microwave heating or meat packaging, and even told the reporter that many restaurants come to them to purchase and use this plastic wrap to package meat. When asked about the production date and shelf life, many merchants said that plastic wrap does not expire.

More than 90% of the samples contain banned plasticizers

Dong Jinshi introduced that in 2005, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China issued the "Notice on Further Strengthening the Supervision of Food Cling Films", prohibiting enterprises from distributing PVC food cling films containing DEHA (diethylhydroxylamine) or excessive levels of vinyl chloride monomer, and prohibiting enterprises from directly packaging meat, cooked food and oily foods with PVC cling films.

According to CCTV reports, Kaifa Environmental Protection recently sent 16 PVC cling film samples sold in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other markets for inspection and found that DEHP plasticizers allowed by the state were exceeded in many samples, with the highest exceeding the standard by 29 times. The Kaifa report also pointed out that DEHA and DCHP (dicyclohexyl phthalate) banned by the state for use in the production and processing of cling films were also detected in the samples, of which DEHA exceeded the detection limit by 471 times at the highest and 98 times at the lowest.

Only one of the 16 samples did not contain DEHA. According to investigation and understanding, the plasticizers used in the labels of cling film manufacturers are DOA (di-n-octyl adipate) and epoxidized soybean oil, which are allowed by the state.

So, where does DEHA come from?

The investigation team sent samples of plasticizers used by 4 cling film manufacturers (2 DOA samples, 2 epoxidized soybean oil samples) for inspection, which showed that the content of DEHA in two DOA plasticizer samples was 68.9% and 107% respectively, and the content of DEHA in one epoxidized soybean oil sample was 0.31%.

Dong Jinshi analyzed that since the price of DEHA is much lower than that of DOA, plasticizer manufacturers are likely to mix DEHA with DOA to reduce the cost price and thus seek profits.

The lack of national standards for PVC cling film

Dong Jinshi believes that the abuse of PVC cling film is an important factor in the lack of relevant national standards. He said that the investigation found that the implementation standards marked on PVC cling film products are also varied, including light industry standards, EU standards, and standards that cannot be found, and some do not mark the implementation standards at all.

Dong Jinshi also said that the national mandatory standards that have been issued have been delayed for several years and have not been followed up so far. It is reported that for PVC cling film, which is also a food packaging product, the national standard "Plastic Self-adhesive Cling Film for Food" (GB10457-2009) was originally scheduled to be officially implemented on December 1, 2009, but in order to give a certain buffer period, on November 27, 2009, the National Standards Committee agreed to the application of the China Light Industry Federation for extension, and the implementation date was postponed to September 1, 2010; in September 2010, the National Standards Committee again postponed the new standard.

"There was no reason for the two extensions, and the implementation time was not mentioned again during the second extension, so there has been no corresponding national standard for PVC cling film so far," said Dong Jinshi. However, PVC cling film has not been eliminated in terms of policy, but there is no implementation standard, so it is impossible to obtain a production license. Obviously, there is a conflict between the national policy and standard system for PVC food cling film at this stage, which needs to be improved and explained as soon as possible.

Beijing Times reporter Hu Xiaohong intern reporter Yan Zhen

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