You sound like an aspiring journalist. Good luck with it.
this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2024
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The sugar in the sweet tea is probably far more dangerous than its food-grade packaging
first the bag thing is not even remotely a us only thing, and second heating food in plastic is sanitary (bc that refers to cleanliness). idk what term would be best for heating food in plastic, but I do agree it should be banned.
Sous vide?
I had forgotten about that... maybe instead of banning it outright it should be restricted to plastics that are certified heating-safe. in hindsight that should've been my take from the start as it aligns much better with my political views (in this case, it matters that I believe most things should only be restricted and not banned outright, an easy example being substances like weed and alcohol).
Ya you’re being poisoned no matter where you live. Get used to it.
Nobody tell them about aluminium soda cans
USA bad. Uplemmy left
Not sure if you're aware, but sanitary just means that there's no microbial growth that would cause illness.
That's a separate food from plastics leeching.
That's not what the dictionary definition of sanitary is. Seriously, go look it up. According to Merriam-Webster, it first says: Of or relating to health. Plastic leaching into stuff is not healthy. No one has ever proved that it's safe. The burden of proof is always proving that something is harmful, and then it's classified as harmful. The problem is, we don't know something is harmful for decades, or longer. People literally believed that it was safe to have cocaine in Coca-Cola and that cigarettes were completely harmless. We also believe that vaping is not harmful, and that marijuana isn't harmful either. Who knows if that'll be discovered as being extremely harmful to your health in 100 years or so.
So to me personally, I don't find it sanitary to involve something in the process that you have no idea whatsoever if it affects your health or not. I would call that unsanitary.
Merriam-Webster, copied in for reference.
adjective
Of or relating to health or the protection of health.
Free from elements, such as filth or pathogens, that endanger health; hygienic.
"sanitary conditions for the preparation of food."
Of or pertaining to health; designed to secure or preserve health; relating to the preservation or restoration of health; hygienic. See the Note under sanatory.
"sanitary regulations"
See under Commission.
Of, or relating to health.
Clean and free from pathogens; hygienic.
Free from filth and pathogens.
"a sanitary washroom"
You're right, there is a usage of it to mean "healthy" in general, my bad.
However, I hope you can understand that it isn't the most common usage, and that the bulk of the definitions and usages are pathogen related. Hence me either forgetting or not having run across its more broad usage.
I'd still use a different word, but I definitely agree with your point under that usage :)
That being said, sometimes something that's not sanitary (using the general definition now) may still be the better option than something that's worse.
Which is the case here, imo.
When you're dealing with something like a soda/cola, you're very often dealing with a slightly corrosive liquid. When that's the case, you're limited in what you can use to ship and store it in. Glass, obviously, is the superior choice in terms of maximum safety for chemical exposure. It is also much more expensive to ship, and has more bulk for storage. It also has a different kind of safety issue; the extra weight and the risk of damage leading to injury rather than just a mess.
The problem is the lack of choice for patrons. We can't say "give me a glass bottle instead" and get one. It's out of the bag-in-a-box or nothing these days.
As far as comparisons to other potential chemical exposures, the ones you listed in specific are a personal choice to take in at all. Whereas sodas, people might not be aware of the fact that they're served from plastics. That doesn't negate your point, it's just an interesting distinction. The plastics in food storage is more like second hand smoke than smoking because it isn't something you can explicitly choose to engage in, and opting out is problematic.
Mind you, I'm not certain that the plastics leeched into a soda are at a high enough level to be worse than the soda itself. They're distinctly not sanitary, no matter what they're stored in. Too much sugar, too much acidity, too many colorants and flavorants that are either neutral, or haven't been excluded completely as possibly unhealthy. Just the caffeine levels in them are problematic, and the problems from the sugar levels will show up in your body years ahead of the plastics. But, again, you're choosing to drink them, but may not be aware of the plastics to opt out.
Fwiw, my household has phased out plastics entirely for anything that gets heated, and for long term storage. We just don't buy new containers as they reach end of life, and any food that comes in plastics gets moved to one of our glass or metal containers if the product is going to be sitting around for more than a week or so. Longer if it's a dried product, since leeching rates for those approaches zero in anything under years. Which is only relevant so you understand that I agree with you that there's no such thing as a totally food safe plastic.
Ive seen boil in the bag food in the UK. Not really sure what the issue is.
Soup in plastic bags is the standard in most industrial kitchens all over the world.
Especially when you heat them 'au bain marie' it's safe-ish. I don't store food in plastic containers because even food grade plastic leaches but it's generally allowed.
Maybe you should make sure this doesn't happen in other industrial countries before shitting on the US
Based on your post let me ask you this: what would be more sanitary? Just to show this isn't a post in bad faith
People pay a lot of money in fancy restaurants to have their food cooked in a plastic bag lol
Ah yes. Sous vide enters the chat
A plastic bag in a metal container sounds about as sanitary as it gets. It's far better to keep the tea in a sterile bag until it's needed rather than pouring it into another, potentially contaminated, container and storing it there.
The USA puts colourings, additives, and other bits a pieces in food that is unnecessary, or unhealthy, but creates flavour. Then they go to other countries and say “your food tastes like shit”.
The fuck are yall on about... food from anywhere else is the best. I would go to events in Iceland regurally enough and it takes me a week or so after getting back to stop noticing that everything state side tastes like plastic.
Modern British food is some of the best in the world, far better than American slop.
Show me one yank that agrees with that
Show me a Brit that agrees with it lmao
Note the word "modern"
I’m stereotyping.
Packaged foods in different countries are exactly the same as what you can find in the US. They are all loaded up with the same stuff. But, just like anywhere else in the world, lots of people make their own food from scratch or buy healthy alternatives.
Holy shit NO! Half of your additives are illegal in Europe
First, don't assume "your". Second, you are using the EU as a reference. What about the Middle East, Asia, Africa, or the Pacific? As someone who has traveled the world, there is junk food in every culture and most of it is garbage.
USA use chlorine, excessive amounts of salt and sugar, and a ridiculous amounts of other additives.
Other countries regs are much stronger.
I'd worry less about the sweet tea and more about how contaminating your laundry is given the amount of plastic microfibers washing away with the waste water. Polyester is plastic. You deliver microfiber bits of plastic into the wastewater with every load of wash. How much of that is really filtered out?
If you end up in the ER or hospital, you will have an up close and personal experience with plastic. Blood: in a plastic bag. Plasma: in a plastic bag. Platelets: in a plastic bag. IV fluids: in a plastic bag. The tubing that delivers any of those things directly into your bloodstream: plastic. The syringes used: plastic. The IVs placed in your veins: plastic, including the catheter that sits inside your vein for the duration (heated to 98 degrees). The wrappers on each individual pill: plastic. The bottles the pills originally come in: plastic. Thermometer covers: plastic. The tubing used during dialysis: plastic. Tube feeding: plastic bottle of food fed through plastic tubing directly to stomach. A chemist or engineer could detail out what type of plastic is used and whether it's a potential problem far better than I.
I question the "biodegradable" items used with seedlings. Why is the mesh from the Burpee peat pucks still fully intact in my compost pile after 4 years? Pucks baked wetly on a heating mat. Buy seedlings? Probably baking in the sun at a garden center in a cheap plastic pot.
A lot of shelf stable food is stored in plastic, and we don't know how hot or cold its getting in the trucks or warehouses before it hits store shelves.
This is a very complex and nuanced issue seeing as plastics as a class of materials can vary greatly in its manufacturing process and if any coatings are used. Some materials have varing use cases, also new materials, coatings, and process combinations are created constantly. Additionally a material might not have noticeable effects on a person for 10+ years.
The American government could pass legislation and studies could be done for both old and new materials and manufacturing process with an introduction of an approval and inspection process. However, did you know that worrying about what corporations do to Americans is "woke"?
Are you implying that the McDonald's in Europe don't do this either? It's extremely standard practice in the food industry and has been for a while.
Also, it's sanitary.
Cooking a food in a sealed plastic bag is referred to as “Sous Vide”, and was invented in 1974 by the french. It can also be performed in a glass jar, so we definitely could remove the plastic from the equation, but there are “food safe plastics” which have been demonstrated to have no known health issues when used for this purpose.
Some plastics, like BPA or PVC, are dangerous to consume/do easily leach into food/water, but “plastic” is a very broad term that refers to a lot of different materials.
Note: microplastics are a whole different story, and we’re not really sure how bad they are for you. It is perfectly reasonable to ask the question, but society at large has essentially decided the convenience outweighs the risk, and good luck trying to avoid it in your food.
I'm willing to bet that you'll get more microplastics from the food itself (meat, plants, water) than the bag.
Shortly, it’ll get even looser.
ALL GAS NO BRAKES WCGW
look up preprepared pasteurized food, it will be an eye opener. you can pop a can of campbell chunky soup and eat it cold. science is amazeballs.
- yes, that’s poisonous
- yes, we have food safety standards
- that can be completely ignored if you have the money
- and yes, RFK Jr. will do the best he can to reduce our standards even further
- to give you an idea of how much of a joke it is, the US label for “safe” is GRAS “generally recognized as safe”
We do; but fuck if anyone actually follows it and the FDA is corrupt as fuck.
But also the plastic thing? We barely found out everything has micro plastics in it and don't even know how harmful it is yet. Hindsight is always 20/20.
You're worried about a little plastic in a beverage with (probably) 50g added sugar? 2g of sodium and 40g fat but a little microplastic puts you off the soup?
Get a grip, honestly.
Microplastics stay in the body forever, fats, carbs and salts don’t.
You're not wrong. That sugar and sodium is going to do a lot to the human body. However I think we should understand what plastics (especially when heated) do too.
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