Since January 1, 2025, the Equalim law has prohibited the use of plastic to warm or serve meals in school canteens for health reasons. However, a survey by France Télévisions broadcast this September 30 reveals that this material, supposed to have disappeared from the students’ plates, is always very present … but concealed.
“Ecological” trays but not so green
Faced with the ban, industrialists quickly presented alternatives presented as natural, and better for our children. Cellulose (a biopolymer) or vegetable fiber trays, in particular. At first glance, Banco! They seem to check all the boxes of ecology, and are therefore ideal for the meals of the youngest. Faced with the 20 -hour eye team, which broadcast its report on September 30, the director of the School company, a collective catering service provider who provides 300,000 meals a day, assures him:
“Our trays are not plastic. (…) It’s cellulose”
Therefore reassuring. Until the journalists wonder what the film that covered these trays really contained.
Not being able to recover a tray on site, the team found the same model in the waste of the town. Direction a Bordeaux laboratory, where the results contradict great initiatives.
“There are polymers of petro-sourced origin in your tray. (…) It is not 100 % vegetable and it remains once again plastic” Etienne Grau analysis, teacher-researcher at the University of Bordeau.
In other words, the film supposed to be “of plant origin” actually hides components from oil, camouflaged.
Providers and manufacturers refer the ball
Faced with these results, Scolerest refers responsibility to Rescaset, his supplier, who himself is off to a manufacturer who remained anonymous. No one seems to assume the actual composition of these trays. To wonder if someone really knows her …
However, the Ministry of Agriculture warns black on white in a guide for canteens:
“Some manufacturers deceive consumers by not appointing their products clearly like plastic. (…) To our knowledge, all the re -employment containers on the market still have layers, plastic films and therefore do not comply.”
Plastic is not fantastic …
The case is not trivial. The Association Health Environnement France (ASEF) recalls that “A simple contact, as brief as it is, can lead to a passage of the plastic particles of the container to the food served to our children“.”This migration is even stronger with heat or fatty bodies and acids, such as sauces “ Press it in several media.
For Florence Brunet-Posenti, cancerologist and member of the ASEF precisely, the risks are major:
“When you put the plastic in contact with food, especially with hot, cold or fatty foods, this leads to a migration of certain substances that are in plastic dishes. You will ingest additives that have overweight, cardiovascular disease and of course carcinogenic effects”.
Plastic is indeed recognized as an endocrine disruptor, factor of infertility, diabetes and cancer. According to some studies, we ingest the equivalent of a blue card in plastic microparticles every week. And it is mainly children, the most vulnerable public, who are most exposed to these dangerous substances.
The France Télévisions survey confirms these concerns. In a laboratory, nine cellulose trays were tested. In contact with food, and in particular heated fats, the plastic film has released molecules capable of acting on the hormonal system.
What alternatives for canteens?
Before you rush to your children’s canteen, know all the same that all the municipalities are not housed in the same brand. Those of less than 2,000 inhabitants have an additional time to apply the law and may not yet have eliminated the crockery crockery (without bad faith). For the others, the authorities recommend switching to lasting materials such as stainless steel or glass. More expensive solutions, certainly, but really in accordance with the spirit of the law and without hidden risks for the health of children.