The Food Safety of Bottles or Cups

The Food Safety of Bottles or Cups

                                 Amelia Lang

1. Introduction

     Safe drinking water is one of the most fundamental and important needs of people to survive, thrive, and live a healthy life. However, sixty percent of people do not have access to using safe and appropriate bottles or cups for drinking water (Tice, 2007). And less people look at the warning labels of bottles or cups before drinking.

     There has been a bulk of studies on the health risk hepatitis of unsafe materials for bottles and cups. (Sharma, 2014) And thirty percent of people may believe plastic bottles or cups are not healthy while glass ones are all safe. Another thirty percent of people may believe plastic bottles or cups are convenient to take along with, and do not worry about the details.

     The aim of this study is to explore which kind of material for bottles or cups that people want to choose, and the appropriate way to use different kinds of bottles or cups. It is hypothesised that:

     A) Some people would hear about the health risk hepatitis of unsafe plastic materials, and might not want to buy plastic bottles or cups.

     B) Few people whose major is not related to chemistry know the details of safe plastic bottles or cups.

     C) Few people look at the warning labels of bottles or cups before drinking.

2. Method

•        Sample

    The sample questioned for the survey consisted of 32 students. The majority of these were mainland Chinese from a cross-section of provinces, and about three percent were students from University of Liverpool.

•        Materials

    The questionnaire consisting of a total of 9 questions on various aspects of the students’ attitude towards materials of bottles or cups was used to collect the survey data. The question types included single choice, multiple choice, and Likert-scale questions.

3. Results and Analysis

Of the 32 students who participated in the study, about 34% were males, 88% were under 27 years of age, and 12% were at least 28 years of age. Just over 90% participants had at least a college education, and 10% had at least a high school education.

Table 1 Which kinds of bottles or cups for drinking water would you prefer in order?