Foam take-out container

Siu mei with rice in a foam takeout container

Khanom krok, Thai Doughnuts with egg and coconut fillings in a foam container.

A foam take-out container is a disposable container for take-out food used by restaurants in many countries. The containers are most commonly used to serve takeout food, and are also available by request in some restaurants for diners who wish to take the remainder of their meal home.

Construction

Foam take-out containers are made from XPS foam, or another type of polystyrene foam, and produced by injecting the foam into a mold. They are usually white in color, although they may be printed or impressed with a company logo or other message.

Varieties

Foam takeout containers come in different varieties:

1. A rectangular shaped clamshell style container with an attached lid, which comes in various sizes. The larger ones usually feature several compartments, allowing different foods to be kept separated from each other. This variety usually features several small projections on the lid of the container, which fit through slots on the bottom to "lock" it, therefore preventing food spillage. These also have a square imprint to write names for large groups.
2. A cylindrical style container with a separate, translucent or opaque plastic lid. The container may or may not taper somewhat towards the bottom. Both overall size ratio of height to diameter can vary greatly. Such containers usually hold soups and stews; however, smaller varieties are often used to hold sauces and condiments.

Chinese cuisine

This is the most commonly used takeout box for Chinese cuisines in East and Southeast Asia. It is standard for Cantonese cuisine in Hong Kong and many parts of China. It is sometimes used overseas in various restaurants, particularly in the United States and Canada.

Issues

Environmental issues

Main article: Polystyrene#Disposal and environmental issues

As foam take-out containers are entirely made out of polystyrene foam, these containers have an impact on the environment as they do not biodegrade. Some cities have gone as far as banning the use of foam take-out containers, notably San Francisco.

Health issues

It is debated if styrene may migrate into the food itself when stored in these containers for even a small amount of time. Some researchers argue that polystyrene containers do pose a health risk according to their research, while others argue that trace amounts of styrene are naturally present in food. When heated or cooked, styrene foam containers do not melt or release any harmful toxins into the food or the environment, unlike other plastics, which gives styrene a notable advantage over plastic when storing and heating food.

Non-food usage

The containers may also be used for other than food items. A Thai-food takeout container served as the fuselage for a weather balloon lifting a video camera more than 100,000 feet into the stratosphere in August, 2010. Luke Geissbühler, a 40-year-old director and cinematographer, designed and assembled the do it yourself project with help from his brother, Phillip, who is a physicist in Boston, and released the balloon in a park in Newburgh, New York. The balloon reached an altitude of around 100,000 feet, at which height the camera was capturing the curvature of the earth and the darkness of the upper atmosphere. The balloon then burst and the camera fell back to Earth at speeds that at times exceeded 150 miles per hour, even with a parachute extended. The capsule landed in a tree 30 miles north of where it started with contents intact. The take-out container helped the craft to adhere to U.S. Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) Part 101 related to unmanned free balloons.

See also

• Oyster pail
• Clamshell (container)