Experts say even if it claims to be “microwave-safe.”
I’m not sure food blogs are the best choice for this. The article goes on to talk about BPA and phthlates, but neither of those exist in pure HDPE or PP.
BPA is found in polycarbonate plastics (acrylic) (Edit: brain lapse, acrylic is PMMA) and epoxy resins. Phthalates are in PVC (vinyl). Using the word ‘plastic’ as a monomer mononym (Edit: lol wrong mono) is dangerous for many reasons, and causation vs correlation is one reason why.
I mean, definitely go with glass if you have the choice, sure, but let’s also actually try to be accurate if we invoke the scientific method.
I would also love for there to be really robust testing of food containers of all varieties direct at the manufacturers, with heavy fines involved if they’re using additives but claiming it’s a food-safe plastic.
Here’s the study in question. Can’t speak to the authenticity of it but off the top I don’t see anything shady
It doesn’t look shady, but I can only access the abstract which just says “plastics” and doesn’t specify that part further, unfortunately.
For me, it has a picture where it specifies a “polypropylene container”.
There’s also this bit from near the end of the abstract:
Additionally, the polyethylene-based food pouch released more particles than polypropylene-based plastic containers. Exposure modeling results suggested that the highest estimated daily intake was 20.3 ng/kg·day for infants drinking microwaved water and 22.1 ng/kg·day for toddlers consuming microwaved dairy products from polypropylene containers.
So, they’re, at least, discussing polypropylene and polyethylene.
BPA is found in polycarbonate plastics (acrylic) […]
Polycarbonate (BPA monomer) is a very different polymer to acrylic/PMMA (methyl methacrylate monomer).
Bon Appetit has been in publication since 1956. It’s unfair to call it a food blog. (I can’t speak to the specifics of plastics that you referred to, just the fact of dismissing the magazine).
Fair, I was too casual in my assessment of Bon Appetit. I have nothing against food blogs though, for what it’s worth.
I should probably have said: “I don’t think that Condé Nast food and entertainment magazines containing Amazon affiliate links are necessarily a great source for the latest accurate and objective health and science information.” I would read a recipe on their site though.
I don’t know, Ars Technica has had some of the best coverage of the recent AI boom over the past handful of years. Extremely realistic, accurate and at times demonstrates a knowledge that shows the writers have actually put in some hours using and understanding some of the AI tools they write about
Here’s the thing. If the plastic is not microwave safe, then it is not any-sort-of-heat safe. The microwave is simply a heating device. The method is different but at the end of day, it vibrates molecules to heat em up.
Most people wouldn’t put plastic on a stovetop or in an oven to begin with. Where else is plastic typically heated with food in it?
Most fast food restaurants and food processing plants. Hot dogs in the plastic casing as they are heated in the factory. Fast food (taco places have meat bags that they heat up before cutting open for use).
Baby bottles. We use a bottle warmer that heats the bottle with steam, but yeah, I’d say breast milk/formula counts. That being said, I don’t think I’ve ever seen bottles not rated as being safe for bottle warmers? And you’d never put a bottle in a microwave (process is too harsh on breast milk and consequently ruins much of its nutritional value, not sure about formula).
I’ve switched to mostly glass, metal, and wood kitchenware, but even those have plastic lids. I try to get paper milk jugs, which I thought were lined with wax, but apparently are plastic? It’s almost impossible to get away from this shit.
If it makes you feel any better the milk, and all the foods you eat, already contain micro-plastics 👍
Paper stuff that is meant to hold liquids will always be just a plastic bag with carton structure. Wax would be fine if you were filling and storing the liquid in your own home. But wax lined paper would never survive the shortest of transportation. Completely non-feasible for industrial scale agriculture. Soft drinks in cans also have plastic linings, metals are more resistant but would also eventually corrode in the midterm.
I never put this kind of plastic on the microwave. But I also worry about paper plates, which have some kind of polyethylene coating that is really really hard to find any info about online. Ive fucking eaten cheese that has been boiled on a “paper” plate, only to find that those plates were coated in some kind of polymer.
By the way, the insides of aluminum cans are coated in plastic.
Sweet dreams!
There is plastic in everything you consume now. You can’t get away from it unless you retreat to the wilderness.
Doubt that’s the case anymore. I’m in the flexible packaging industry and we had to go PFAS free reeeeeal quick. .
PFAS based processing aids allowed us to run higher quality product at higher production rates with longer machine uptime.
All for the low low cost of microplastics everywhere all the time.
Why? Like, is this equivilant to ‘smoking cigarettes will kill you?’ Or more, ‘going within ten metres of a running automobile will kill you?’ Because stress and anxiety will kill you dead too. So…
I suspect the next generation will be horrified that people ever cooked in plastic. Or ate or drank out of plastic. They’ll think of it the same way we think of lead pipes now.
The evidence of terrible health effects of plastic seems to be adding up very fast. Pthalates, PFAS, and microplastics all seem to be implicated in the increasing rates of ill health, cancer and cardiovascular disease.
