Question

Can pickles be stored in plastic containers? Give reason for your answer.

Answer 1

Hint: A vegetable or fruit that has been preserved in vinegar or salt water, particularly a mango or chilli pulp that has been preserved in this manner are known as pickles. Vinegar contains acetic acid, which can react to plastics.

Complete Step-by-Step solution
Pickles are made with adding a lot of preservatives for their longer shelf life. That means that it has a lot of acid and salt content. Now, because it has a lot of acid and salt content, it should be stored in such a way that it does not react with the container in which it is kept.
If we keep pickles in containers made up of plastic, then under normal circumstances, it will be okay to do so. But, as soon as adverse conditions may come, the salts and acid inside the pickle will start to react with the plastic container and produce harmful products which are not at all fit for consumption by the human body.
So, we need to find a container which will not react with acids or salts. We know that acids and salts are kept in glass containers inside laboratories. In the same way, pickles are stored in glass containers because they do not react with the substance glass and do not produce harmful by-products.
Hence, pickles should be kept in glass containers and not in plastic containers.

Note
If you keep pickles in plastic containers during the winter season, then it will be all good for consumption because the weather in winters is not too harsh and it will not allow the pickle to react with the plastic container. But as soon as summer season arrives, due to harsh weather conditions, the pickle will start reacting with the container and become unfit for consumption by the human body.