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Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

theatlantic.com

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Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#281

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

Aachen wrote: post #275
MrSkelter wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The precautionary principle plus what we know about heating plastic makes your reticence seem churlish. There are easy, safe alternatives in wood, metal and silicone. There’s no need to risk it.

Maybe a stupid question, but how can I tell the difference between plastic and silicone? We use a black spatula that's flexible (shapes a bit to the curvature of what you're wiping, super convenient) and doesn't scratch the pan while not being porous like wood (where I always wonder how many bacteria live in these crevasses). It seems perfect and is being sold specifically for cooking so I assumed this plastic, if th…

Plastic isn't as heat tolerant, so you could subject the utensils to high heat (200°C should do it) and see if they start to melt. Whilst it's a destructive test, it's probably worth destroying and replacing plastic utensils as silicone ones are much better.

Edit: apparently you can tell the difference by squeezing them too - silicone will feel rubbery.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#282

Post by dotancohen »

Jarmsy wrote: post #244
dotancohen wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just started cooking in an iron pan, and I love it. It's actually not significantly more difficult to clean once you learn to leave the seasoning on and get over the cultural conditioning of what clean is essentially. The cooking process it also far better, with the whole pan being uniformly hot and staying that way.

There are a lot of old misconceptions around about cast iron seasoning. It's a layer of bioplastic formed by the polymerization when heating a thin layer of oil on the pan to high temperature - It's not about leaving your pan dirty or 'flavored'. You can clean it with regular dish soap just fine, that isn't strong enough to take the layer off.

Yes, correct. I'll add, though, that this takes skill to develop. Even the soap just left on the sponge from washing other utensils is too much. So I'll often just foregoe the soap unless there is an egregious bit of food stuck on it - which is rare as the heat is so well distributed on cast iron that I don't burn food anymore using it.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#283

Post by dotancohen »

astura wrote: post #250
dotancohen wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just started cooking in an iron pan, and I love it. It's actually not significantly more difficult to clean once you learn to leave the seasoning on and get over the cultural conditioning of what clean is essentially. The cooking process it also far better, with the whole pan being uniformly hot and staying that way.

>and get over the cultural conditioning of what clean is essentially. Eww, gross. This is not necessary, you can (and should) actually clean your cast iron pans. I certainly clean mine.

No, it's not gross. It's just not squeaky obsessively free of oil. But it's still clean.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#284

Post by Aachen »

pcthrowaway wrote: post #235
onnnon wrote: post #27

A lot of coffee makers run hot water over black plastics too.

Your coffee maker is exposed to at most 100 degrees C. Spatulas are exposed to temperatures over 200 C. Instinctively, I'm much more worried about the latter, though I admittedly don't know anything about the science behind what temperatures flame retardants or other undesirable contaminants might leach out of the plastic.

Might not matter:

The article also speaks of a black necklace for children that was found to be 3% flame retardant chemicals by weight, saying

> Those flame retardants migrate into toddlers’ saliva and into the dust in our homes

Perhaps it's fine if you don't lick your coffee machine, or perhaps not. I guess being less worried makes sense but I'm not sure that we need not be worried about boiling our drinks in fire retardants (assuming they're present in these materials)

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#285

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

carabiner wrote: post #112
chomp wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cast iron? My eggs slide around great every time, and I scrub it with Dawn and a sponge after every cook (it is a myth that you cannot do this)

Carbon steel is better in every way. There's zero objective reason to cast iron over it.

Price

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#286

Post by Aachen »

ethagnawl wrote: post #175
onnnon wrote: post #27

A lot of coffee makers run hot water over black plastics too.

It's admittedly been a while since I've looked but there don't seem to be any (automated) drip makers whose use doesn't result in plastic coming into contact with hot water. I'm well aware of and own many of the more manual options that don't have this issue. However, the automatic feature is killer (heh) and this seems like an obvious miss by manufacturers.

The article does speak of black specifically, not just any plastic. Even if there aren't any that don't put the hot liquid in contact with plastic, it might be worth looking at the color (is my understanding from the article)

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#287

Post by dnpls »

Aachen wrote: post #275
MrSkelter wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The precautionary principle plus what we know about heating plastic makes your reticence seem churlish. There are easy, safe alternatives in wood, metal and silicone. There’s no need to risk it.

Maybe a stupid question, but how can I tell the difference between plastic and silicone? We use a black spatula that's flexible (shapes a bit to the curvature of what you're wiping, super convenient) and doesn't scratch the pan while not being porous like wood (where I always wonder how many bacteria live in these crevasses). It seems perfect and is being sold specifically for cooking so I assumed this plastic, if th…

Side note: If you regularly and promptly clean your wooden utensils, bacteria and germs won't set in. Bacteria only becomes an issue when the wood splinters or is damaged in some way.

Also "capillary action" takes place in wood, meaning water and/or bacteria on the outside of the wooden surface essentially diffuses into the wood, "choking out" the surface bacteria and therefore not providing them with a good environment on which to grow. Additionally, wood has antimicrobial properties.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#288

Post by bluGill »

ahoka wrote: post #259
amanda99 wrote: post #167

I thought this was going to be about clean cooking fuels . One of the significant projects of the WHO is transitioning the world towards cooking with clean fuels that reduce indoor air pollution. In the worst case certain populations are burning plastics to heat their water, food, and homes, and as you can imagine this is incredibly destructive to health.

Even in developed countries like the US a lot of people burn fossil fuels for indoor cooking, even when they could choose a better alternative.

What better option? resistance electric is clearly worse in other ways. I've heard induction is good but it is an expensive luxury option and not common even in that niche.

i've heard it is reasonable priced in other countries but not the us.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#289

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

dnpls wrote: post #287
Aachen wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe a stupid question, but how can I tell the difference between plastic and silicone? We use a black spatula that's flexible (shapes a bit to the curvature of what you're wiping, super convenient) and doesn't scratch the pan while not being porous like wood (where I always wonder how many bacteria live in these crevasses). It seems perfect and is being sold specifically for cooking so I assumed this plastic, if th…

Side note: If you regularly and promptly clean your wooden utensils, bacteria and germs won't set in. Bacteria only becomes an issue when the wood splinters or is damaged in some way. Also "capillary action" takes place in wood, meaning water and/or bacteria on the outside of the wooden surface essentially diffuses into the wood, "choking out" the surface bacteria and therefore not providing them with a good environm…

I recall hearing from somewhere that it's not so much the cleaning, but the drying that kills off the microbes.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#290

Post by armada651 »

MrSkelter wrote: post #226
altacc wrote: post #166

This article is brief and uses big numbers to make a scary point but I'd be interested in if there is proof of causation of significant physiological effects at the exposure level from domestic cooking. Often media will say "people exposed to Y have increased Z" but fail to mention that in studies those people worked in industrial settings with Y and the exposure level is hundreds or thousands of times higher than in…

The precautionary principle plus what we know about heating plastic makes your reticence seem churlish. There are easy, safe alternatives in wood, metal and silicone. There’s no need to risk it.

The problem is that even when there are easy, safe alternatives trying to avoid every little risk in your life will drive you crazy.

This is a clear case where a regulator should step in and just ban these black plastic utensils in favor of their safe alternatives.

That way you're not just protected from exposure in your own kitchen, but also when joining your friends for dinner.

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