Expert: the box lunch at normal temperature is "soft can" which can be preserved for a long time, but the taste is slightly affected.

 

Without preservatives, the shelf life of motor vehicles can reach half a year? Passengers questioned the safety and taste and nutritional value of "6 month lunch". Recently, the reporter purchased a number of such boxed meals to try, and sent to the professional inspection institutions have been produced for more than two days, shelf life of 90 days and 6 months of motor vehicle boxed meals samples. The results showed that the bacterial content was not exceeding the standard and met the relevant standards.

 

On the train D3009 from Wuchang to Shanghai Hongqiao, the reporter found such a box lunch with a shelf life of six months. The production date was September 13. The contents included rice, beef, potatoes, eggs, fish balls, carrots, bamboo shoots and so on, and especially prompted "no preservatives" and the preservation conditions were "normal temperature". Compared with fresh rice, meat is soft, but its flavor is not as good as fresh food.

 

According to Huatie Travel Service Company, which is responsible for the catering of Shanghai Railway EMUs, there are mainly two kinds of boxed meals available on Shanghai Railway EMUs, one is fresh boxed meals with a 24-hour shelf life, the other is boxed meals with a longer shelf life. Because some long-distance trains can not return to Shanghai on the same day, if the use of short-shelf boxed meals, it is necessary to purchase boxed meals near the destination of the train, food hygiene may be difficult to guarantee. Therefore, some long-distance EMUs will choose better qualified enterprises in Shanghai to purchase long-term box lunches.

 

Reporters bought a number of boxed meals on the train, and two of them on September 27 entrusted to the relevant departments for inspection. One of the boxed meals for inspection is the "new" brand of braised beef set meal produced on September 13, which has a shelf life of six months, and the other is dried plum dish with buckled meat meal, which is produced on September 17 and has a shelf life of 90 days. On October 8, the inspection report issued by Shanghai Minhang District Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Shanghai Minhang District Health Inspection Institute) was released. According to the relevant standards, the inspectors carried out the total number of colonies, coliform count, Salmonella test, Shigella test, Staphylococcus aureus test and so on. The report concluded that the control standard DB31/160-2005 (Hygienic and Nutritional Requirements for Boxed Meals) was in line with the criteria.

 

Professor Wang Xichang, Dean of the School of Food of Shanghai Ocean University and Vice-Chairman of Shanghai Food Society, also observed and analyzed the boxed lunch which had a six-month shelf life. He thought that the boxed lunch was packaged tightly and that different dishes and rice were separated to prevent mutual influence. This kind of product belongs to a kind of processed food which uses canning technology. It can extend the shelf life without preservatives. Wang Xichang explained that canned food refers to a series of commercial aseptic products made of food materials through a series of processes, such as pretreatment, loading into sealed containers, exhaust gas, sealing, sterilization, cooling, etc., which can be stored at room temperature without the aid of preservatives.

 

Fan Zhihong, an associate professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety at the Food College of China Agricultural University, also said that the Long-shelf-life boxed lunch provided by the trains was a convenient boxed lunch. This kind of box lunch is a mature technology. It has been widely used in industrial food both at home and abroad. This kind of lunch box is relatively poor, some vitamins may be lost, but basic nutrition will not be lost.