The answer to this question is – it’ll depend upon the quality of plastic. There are some good quality and air-tight plastic takeaway containers that work perfectly fine if you store food while traveling.
Not only that, there are various sizes, shapes, colors, and designs available to fit into all your food storage needs.
Square, oval, cylindrical, or round takeaway containers to store liquid, semi-liquid, solid, or gel-form of contents.
Packaging is essential whether you need a cake box packaging, coffee cups, and dispensers, foil containers, lids, plastic takeaway containers, and many more that promote safety and good hygiene. These all are some of the most used stuff that every place requires and we may overwhelm the requirements many times.
Whether we talk about our home, office, restaurants, or somewhere else in the world, we used to store leftovers in plastic boxes and put them in the fridge to keep them fresh for a few more days. But, have you ever checked the quality of plastic in which you store food?
Nope.
We don’t bother to focus on plastic quality which will affect our health. The market has various types of plastic available – from cheap quality to high-class, and you need to pick only only quality ones to maintain a good appetite.
If you never pay attention to the quality of these bottles and boxes, then it’s a suggestion to get enough idea about its quality and how it gets manufactured. How could you ensure the quality?
Well, you can just look at the box’s bottom and if you find #3 or #7, then consider the material that could release chemicals such as PVC (phthalates) or BPA (bisphenol A) which could adversely affect our body and hormonal levels.
However, not every plastic container releases toxic chemicals. If you ever notice numbers #2, #4, and #5 printed at the bottom of the plastic boxes, such boxes are considered safe for storage. Although, many people prefer only only glass or steel elements as their food containers rather than taking plastic as an option.
According to experts, plastic containers that are free from BPA can only be used as regular food storage. Otherwise, it’s risky to put anything into a plastic box and then consume it later.
Experts also warned to not use thin plastic mineral water bottles or drink water from a bottle that was kept in the sun.
Apart from all of these things, there are a few most important things to remember before using plastic containers.
- Make sure to not reheat food in a plastic container
Reheating or cooking food in any plastic container is something very dangerous. Such heating will release a certain type of chemical which will further impact the food quality. Nutrition experts say that it is unsafe to store heat or cooked food in plastic containers. Reversely, you can store cool and dry food to not let the quality get hampered.
- Say no to hot water
No doubt, cleaning anything with hot water can diminish germs and bacteria. But, the same could not happen in the case of plastic containers. Such practices could affect the quality of food and it can even lead to cancer.
