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Microwaved plastic containers release microplastics into food

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Re: Microwaved plastic containers release microplastics into food

#241

Post by FriedPickles »

And how many microplastics are released the second time the container's microwaved? And the third?

I'm all against microwaving brand new plastics (not a huge fan of take-out containers). But I suspect the plastic coffee brewer I've used ~1000 times has long since leached out anything that was going to leach out. I wonder if there's any research on this.

It'd be cool if there were a commercial lab I could send a some samples to measure microplastics, the same way I can send my tap water to be tested for lead.

Re: Microwaved plastic containers release microplastics into food

#242

Post by valval »

kyriakos wrote: post #141
pmoriarty wrote: post #12

I've long ago stopped cooking or putting hot food in plastic containers.. not because of this but because of the possibility other harmful substances leeching from the plastic in to my food. Sure, there are some plastics labeled "for safe" and "BPA-free", but that doesn't guarantee some other plastic that's used doesn't contain harmful substances or cause as yet unknown side effects that just haven't been found by re…

In addition to not storing warm things in plastic, I also avoid storing liquids (e.g. food in sauce, stews etc) because I think its easier for plastic to contaminate the food. I am no expert so I may be over-reacting or completely wrong that dry food does any better in plastic.

I don’t think you’re overreacting if you think any invention newer than 100 years has a high probability of being detrimental to our nature in some way.

Re: Microwaved plastic containers release microplastics into food

#243

Post by soderfoo »

amanaplanacanal wrote: post #196
soderfoo wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rather than putting a plate on top in the microwave, I have resorted to using a lightly dampened paper towel, gets the job done just as well and one less dish for me to clean.

Now I’m curious about the wet-strength resins in paper towels. Are they safe?

FWIW the USDA says plain paper towels are fine to wrap food while microwaving [1]. But I agree with the notion of wanting to minimize exposing food to toxins. I try to limit my microwave usage all together and prefer the oven for reheating food.

[1] https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and...

Re: Microwaved plastic containers release microplastics into food

#244

Post by adrian_b »

vel0city wrote: post #157
adrian_b wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tempered soda-lime glass is still preferable as a food-contact material to almost anything else, but it is much less pleasant to use than borosilicate glass, because it is much heavier and if you abuse it the tempered glass cracks relatively easily (e.g. if after boiling water in a tempered glass teapot you immerse it for cooling in cold water from the tap, the chances of cracking are high, while a borosilicate glass…

Most of my glass containers don't experience those kinds of thermal shocks though, at least non-baking glasses. Most of the containers I'm thinking about which these days have a "pyrex" brand are food containers and measuring cups which might get microwaved. True, if I've got a nice glass casserole dish I might want that to be able to handle the "go from the freezer to a 400F oven in an instant" but most of my glass…

Both borosilicate glass and tempered glass are much more resistant to shocks like dropping on a floor than traditional glass.

The chances of being not damaged by a shock depend both on the material and on the wall thickness.

Because they are intrinsically less resistant, the tempered glass objects are typically made with thicker walls.

The end result is that the borosilicate glass objects with thin walls have about the same mechanical shock resistance like the tempered glass objects with thick walls.

Nevertheless, because the soda-lime glass has greater density than borosilicate glass, combined with the fact that the tempered glass objects have thicker walls, makes the tempered glass objects much heavier.

Their great weight makes the tempered glass objects more prone to being dropped during handling.

The borosilicate glassware is more expensive, but the difference is not significant, especially for objects that may remain usable for an entire human lifetime, if used carefully. I have never hesitated to buy some borosilicate glassware because it was too expensive. The main problem has always been that there are few suppliers so it may be difficult to find the exact size and shape that you search.

Re: Microwaved plastic containers release microplastics into food

#245

Post by Reubachi »

kyriakos wrote: post #141
pmoriarty wrote: post #12

I've long ago stopped cooking or putting hot food in plastic containers.. not because of this but because of the possibility other harmful substances leeching from the plastic in to my food. Sure, there are some plastics labeled "for safe" and "BPA-free", but that doesn't guarantee some other plastic that's used doesn't contain harmful substances or cause as yet unknown side effects that just haven't been found by re…

In addition to not storing warm things in plastic, I also avoid storing liquids (e.g. food in sauce, stews etc) because I think its easier for plastic to contaminate the food. I am no expert so I may be over-reacting or completely wrong that dry food does any better in plastic.

regardless of food context/state of matter, any chemical reaction occurring between food stuffs and it's voluminous container is leaching the plastic as the volume tries to reach chemical equilibrium. The air between the "dry" food and the container is just a bridge to the food-plastic at that point.

Of course you won't see that happen in real time in a way that's like "Ah, now it's unsafe." But rest assured knowing it's ALL unsafe, depending on how you feel about life.

Re: Microwaved plastic containers release microplastics into food

#246

Post by ComplexSystems »

I'm glad that civilization has gotten it together enough to produce this study. Clearly it took an exorbitant amount of planning and resources to do, and we shouldn't expect studies like this that often. But at long last, we now have hard evidence that microwaving food in plastic containers is bad, many decades after they were introduced as "microwave safe."

As the burden of proof for something being unsafe is on us, the consumer, rather than the companies introducing novel elements into the food supply, this is an important milestone. Things are safe until proven otherwise, and it's up to us to do the work to prove we aren't just being paranoid about any health issues that arise.

But now we can rest easy knowing that we're set up to get these misleading "microwave-safe" labels removed... a few decades from now.

(/s. Anyone could have done this study at any time - all they did was to microwave water in plastic containers to see what would happen. I guess literally nobody has ever done that before, certainly not the companies labeling their products as "microwave safe." Maybe in another few decades, someone will look at what happens with Teflon coated pans.)

Re: Microwaved plastic containers release microplastics into food

#247

Post by Reubachi »

yetihehe wrote: post #149
swsieber wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As aeropress user for many years, I don't think there's noticeable amount of microplastics coming from it How does one notice microplastics? Do you notice microplastics from anything?

It's about how much microplastics is too much. After two years of use, I don't see a lot of plastic being eaten away comparing to a new one, so I don't think it's much of a deal.

When people discuss microplastics, they are not necessarily ever meaning "visible plastic", but rather chemical offgassing.

Re: Microwaved plastic containers release microplastics into food

#248

Post by adrian_b »

jacobwilliamroy wrote: post #140
reaperducer wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Glass gets very hot in the microwave. Hot enough to burn skin. So does plastic. Also, it's a microwave oven . Who thinks that you can stick your hands on something in a device called an "oven" and not get burned?

There are materials which are "transparent" to microwaves and don't get hot in the microwave oven but I can't remember which ones. And glass definitely isn't one of them.

Glass is mostly transparent to microwaves, which is why all microwave ovens include glass plates.

The reason why glass vessels become hotter in a microwave oven is because glass has a much higher thermal conductivity than plastic, so it becomes heated from the hot food.

Using two pieces of cloth (e.g. cut from a small towel) to hold the hot glass vessel is enough to take it safely out of the oven and this negligible inconvenience matters much less than the undesirable effects of heating food in a plastic vessel.

Re: Microwaved plastic containers release microplastics into food

#249

Post by salawat »

ComplexSystems wrote: post #246

I'm glad that civilization has gotten it together enough to produce this study. Clearly it took an exorbitant amount of planning and resources to do, and we shouldn't expect studies like this that often. But at long last, we now have hard evidence that microwaving food in plastic containers is bad, many decades after they were introduced as "microwave safe." As the burden of proof for something being unsafe is on us,…

The limiting factor has always been access to expensive scientific equipment to actually run the experiment, then access to a reputible publishing channel.

Scientific lab equipment, a las, is still a field ripe for more work on democratization. Mind, even that suffers from things like the War on Drugs making possession of lab paraphenalia (accurate scales, glassware, and other things needed for taking accurate/controlled measurements) a risky proposition. In fact, one could say, the System is tilted against the Citizen Scientist unaffiliated with an organization from the get-go.

Re: Microwaved plastic containers release microplastics into food

#250

Post by egman_ekki »

floren wrote: post #231
egman_ekki wrote: post #102

I’ve switched to glass bottles for my daughter pretty early on, but most of the bottles used for breast milk pumps are plastic (e.g. https://www.medela.com/breastfeeding/products/collecting/sto... ), and are supposed to be boiled after each use for disinfection. I really wonder how durable they are and how much microplastic ends up in that breastmilk…

Do you store any milk in the fridge or freezer? I've been trying to find good glass containers for that and coming up pretty short.

Don’t store it in the fridge anymore, but using these and they are pretty good: https://www.mambaby.com/p/feel-good-260ml-forest-glass-baby-...
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