Foodservice Packaging and… Styrene

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Foodservice packaging is made from a wide variety of materials. These products go through rigorous testing to ensure that they meet stringent regulations, ensuring the safe delivery of foodservice items to consumers.

However, there has been some confusion over the safety of polystyrene with the inclusion of “styrene” in the National Toxicology Program’s (NTP) 12th Report on Carcinogens in 2011.

Styrene is naturally present in foods such as strawberries, peaches, cinnamon, beef and coffee and is produced in the processing of foods such as beer, wine and cheese. It is also used to make polystyrene, a material used to make some foodservice packaging.

Polystyrene has been used in foodservice products like foam coffee cups, takeout containers and cutlery for more than five decades. During that time, polystyrene has been reviewed by various regulatory agencies and scientific bodies, which have deemed it safe for use in contact with food.

The NTP stated in its own report that “It is important to note that the reports do not present quantitative assessments of carcinogenic rise…Listing in the report does not establish that such substances present a risk to persons in their daily lives. Such formal risk assessments are the purview of the appropriate federal, state, and local health regulatory and research agencies.” So NTP did not conclude that styrene or plastic foodservice packaging made with styrene present any risk to human health.

Following the NTP report publication, several additional statements were released confirming the safety of polystyrene:

    • The U.S. National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences noted “Styrene should not be confused with polystyrene (styrofoam). Although styrene, a liquid, is used to make polystyrene, which is a solid plastic, we do not believe that people are at risk from using polystyrene products.”
    • The toxicologist who heads NTP stated “Let me put your mind at ease right away about Styrofoam,” noting that levels of styrene from polystyrene containers “are hundreds if not thousands of times lower than have occurred in the occupational setting…In finished products, certainly styrene is not an issue.”

Furthermore, in 2013 the American Chemistry Council’s Plastics Foodservice Packaging Group provided updated styrene migration data to the Food & Drug Administration (FDA). The data show that current exposures to styrene from the use of polystyrene food contact products remain extremely low, with the estimated daily intake calculated at 6.6 micrograms per person per day. This is more than 10,000 times below the safety limit set by FDA (the FDA’s acceptable daily intake value of styrene is calculated to be 90,000 micrograms per person per day).

For more general information on styrene, please visit the Styrene Information and Research Center website at  www.styrene.org and www.youknowstyrene.org.

Updated November 2013

Single-Use Versus Reusables: The Good, The Bad and The Yucky

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Single-use versus Reusable Foodservice Packaging: The Good, the Bad, and the Yucky

Foodservice packaging like paper and plastic cups, plates and bowls were invented over 100 years ago to provide a more sanitary alternative to their reusable counterparts and help protect public health. Over the years, the Foodservice Packaging Institute has commissioned independent studies with third-party laboratories to confirm the sanitary advantage of single-use foodservice packaging over reusables.

Before you choose that ceramic mug over a paper or plastic cup, you may want to know what the latest study shows. In 2012, health inspectors visited 30 different foodservice establishments in Sacramento County, Calif. and swabbed nearly 300 single-use cups, plates, bowls and cutlery and their reusable counterparts. These swabs were sent to a laboratory for testing, and here’s what they found:

    • Evidence of Enterococcus and Staphylococcus – bacteria that can cause diarrhea, cramps, nausea, vomiting, fever and chills – was below the detection limit on both the single-use and reusable items. Certainly good news for the foodservice industry.
    • Not such good news when it comes to coliform bacteria, which is usually traced back to fecal matter (ewww!) and can cause bloody diarrhea, severe abdominal pain, cramps, nausea, vomiting and occasionally fever. If that’s not bad enough, it can be fatal in the young, elderly and immune-compromised. The results of the swabs taken in Sacramento County showed evidence of coliforms on four percent of reusable items and on none of the single-use items. Hmm, wonder what would have happened to those lucky customers if they had been served the reusable plate, bowl and spoon that the laboratory determined had over six times the coliforms?!?!

Another test was the mere presence of bacteria, which could indicate a food safety or public health hazard. Single-use items were again shown to be more sanitary, with statistically significant lower bacteria counts compared to the reusable items. Consider these test results:

    • Over one-third (gulp!) of the reusable plates and bowls tested had higher than acceptable microbial levels, compared to nine percent of single-use cups.
    • One quarter of the reusable forks, knives and spoons tested had higher than acceptable microbial levels, compared to just over ten percent of single-use cups.
    • Seventeen percent of reusable cups tested had higher than acceptable microbial levels, compared to only seven percent of single-use cups.

Time after time, sanitation studies prove that single-use Foodservice Packaging is The Sensible Solution.

Foodservice Packaging and… Litter Prevention

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Litter is a pervasive problem in the United States today. Refuse may be blown out of overflowing trash bins, inexcusably tossed by consumers onto streets and into yards, or illegally dumped into waterways. The role of foodservice packaging in the litter stream is often perceived to be greater than reality. For example, a 2009 study conducted for Keep America Beautiful found that fast food packaging (the greatest component of all foodservice packaging) contributed less than six percent to total litter.

But, less than six percent is still too much. FPI members sponsor, participate in or have established numerous litter reduction and education programs including:

    • Joining and participating in national and state Keep America Beautiful programs;
    • Designing and implementing anti-litter education programs; and
    • Sponsoring independent community programs to prevent and reduce littering.

Littering is unsightly, unpleasant and potentially harmful to public health and animal and marine life. FPI believes everyone must play a role in reducing it.

Updated October 2012

Guidance Document for Qualifying Ovenable Packaging

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Leak Test: Hot Cups Poly-Coated

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Capacity of Cups and Containers Standard

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