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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

#441

Post by Gravityloss »

spacemark wrote: post #436
SoftTalker wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just don't use plastic for cooking.

Metal spatulas aren't an option for most, either, as they scratch pans. So what's the suggested realistic alternative? Wood? Edit: wasn't trying to be snarky or anything. Honestly concerned for my family's health and trying to figure out the best path. Wood spatulas it is. Replacing all our PTFE pans with much more expensive cast iron pans isn't an option for our budget right now. Plus I haven't seen convincing scien…

Wood spatulas are great. They are also cheap. If you have a fireplace, you can even burn them at the end of life so very little waste!

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#442

Post by kylebenzle »

andrewstuart wrote: post #75
kylebenzle wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Aren’t we talking about chemical contamination from kitchen cooking items?

No, like hand towels and bunt pans are not what's being discussed, article is about plastic utensils.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#444

Post by pton_xd »

foobarian wrote: post #417
crispyambulance wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A properly seasoned cast iron pan can be non-stick but the temperature has to be right, you need shortening, and you can't just put any amount of food in it at any temperature. Stainless is can do the job too, but temperature and shortening is even more important. There's a much tighter window of temperature that it works at. You do the "water drop test" to determine that it's ready. See youtube for an infinity of vi…

I use cast iron for everything I possibly can, but there is one use case I still need non-stick pans for: frying eggs. The only way to get them to not stick in even the best seasoned cast iron pan is copious amounts of oil, which seems like it's probably worse than a few molecules of PTFE derivates.

I've been frying eggs in my cast iron every morning for years, works like a charm! I use a small slice of butter and it's nonstick. The eggs don't freely slide around like they would in a non-stick pan, but after frying on one side for a moment I can easily move them with a metal spatula.

My trick though is that I have a cast iron only for eggs... if I cook other stuff in it the smooth buttery coating gets lost and the eggs start sticking again. After a few days of eggs-only it becomes nonstick again.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#445

Post by pengaru »

crazygringo wrote: post #408

I really wish OXO would put out a statement here. A lot of people use it's black plastic tools like this one [1] -- like a lot of brands, OXO calls its black plastic tools "nylon" to differentiate from "silicone" -- and it would be really, really good to know if OXO has always rigorously made sure never to use recycled plastics, or if testing shows that its own products contain flame retardants. In other words, when…

You sure are leaning-in to that username...

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#446

Post by em-bee »

maxwell wrote: post #422
em-bee wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

metal spatulas make scratches into the pan, which destroys any surface coating (so it goes into the food) or, if there is no coating, at least destroys the smooth surface which makes food stick even more.

That's not true at all. Go to any professional kitchen. You'll only see metal on metal.

maybe they have higher quality pans that are less easy to scratch, or they are learning how to use those tools without causing scratches, or they simply replace them more often.

in every pot or pan i have ever used, scratches were a problem. and only metal tools could have caused them.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#447

Post by stronglikedan »

spacemark wrote: post #436
SoftTalker wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just don't use plastic for cooking.

Metal spatulas aren't an option for most, either, as they scratch pans. So what's the suggested realistic alternative? Wood? Edit: wasn't trying to be snarky or anything. Honestly concerned for my family's health and trying to figure out the best path. Wood spatulas it is. Replacing all our PTFE pans with much more expensive cast iron pans isn't an option for our budget right now. Plus I haven't seen convincing scien…

Yes, wood is one. Why not wood?

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#448

Post by asow92 »

denvaar wrote: post #428

I would like to know if the plastic used in my Moccamaster is subject to these hazards. I bought it specifically because they claim to use food-grade quality plastic that is supposed to be safe.

Just checked my Moccamaster and it says that it uses PET 7 plastic, which supposedly designates "other" resin. Not sure what that means if anything for food safety.

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#449

Post by toss1 »

I saw this report and the first place I thought of a LOT of black plastic being in contract with hot food preparation is coffee-makers - I recall seeing zero plastic filter-holders and pot lids that are not black plastic, and every drip of coffee goes through the black plastic filter funnel and lid, then across the black plastic carafe rim.

IDK if these are part of the problem, but if so, that is a LOT of goods to replace. Anyone have any details on the type of plastic used in these coffee pots and if it is part of the problem set?

Re: Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

#450

Post by jaredhallen »

exmadscientist wrote: post #71

The correlation-causation in this article is really rather screwed up. The way it really works for plastic is this: almost all bad plastic is black, but not all black plastic is bad. That's it. There is nothing wrong whatsoever with virgin black plastics. (Well, at least, nothing more than is wrong with plastics in general.) So there is no reason to fear black plastic from reputable sources. The trouble comes in when…

The recycled plastic may, indeed, be worse than "virgin", but any plastic melting in your food seems ill advised. I'm not a zealot refusing to drink out of a plastic cup, but spatulas see a lot more heat than most cookware. My wife and I noticed our plastic spatulas (including one from a well known "reputable" brand) showing signs of melting years ago, and into the trash they went. Seems pretty reasonable to me.
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