Characterization Of Benzene Derivatives In Fat-mimic Solution From Disposable Foam Food Containers

We studied the safety issues of disposable foam food container in Suzhouarea in this thesis. The disposable foam food containers from different Suzhouarea were soaked into fat-mimic solution for different time at differenttemperature, and the content of six benzene derivatives (toluene, ethylbenzene,p-xylene, m-xylene, o-xylene and styrene) in the fat-mimic solution wasdetermined by using gas chromatography (GC). In this way, we evaluate thesafety problems of the disposable foam food container in Suzhou area.Detailed works are summarized as follows:1) By using95%ethanol as fat-mimic solvent, the linear fitting methodto determine the content of six benzene derivatives extracted in the solutionwas established for gas chromatography characterization.2)64samples from different area of Suzhou were selected to evaluatetheir safety issues. It was found that when the soaking condition is at roomtemperature, only4samples are not qualified for the extracted benzenederivatives are higher than the safety standard. When the soaking temperaturerose to45℃, the qualified rate was only73.4%, and at the temperature of65℃, the qualified rate ofcontainers is only31.2%. The styrene content in theextraction solution is the most significant increment with the increasingtemperature. Since styrene is the monomer for the synthesis of disposablefoam container, which is made from polystyrene resin, this phenomenaindicate there is still lots of styrene resides in the container. On the otherhand, the content of p-xylene, m-xylene, o-xylene in the extraction solution increased with extraction temperature too, although the individual test resultsdid not exceed the limitation of standards, the total amount of xylene contentexceeds the limitation value. In this way, the so-called safety disposable foamfood containers are not safe.3) Our research results show that, the disposable foam food containersare not suitable for packing greasy food, especially at high temperatures.Although the forbidden law about the disposable foam food containers hasbeen lifted, there is no relevant provisions on how to use them in a safety way,which should cause the attention from related departments.