Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Troubling chemicals found in wide range of fast-food wrappers

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 73 posts

Re: Troubling chemicals found in wide range of fast-food wrappers

#31

Post by [deleted] »

Neliquat wrote: post #12
colanderman wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried cast-iron (mostly for pancakes) but found that it heated very unevenly (to the point of burning food in the center and not cooking food at the edge). I've found success with a multi-clad stainless steel skillet. Heating it to the Leidenfrost point [1] ensures that nothing sticks. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leidenfrost_effect#Leidenfrost...

Disclaimer: I am an avid cast iron user. It seems like cast iron fails on electric cooktops, or in the case of much of the thin modern cast iron cookware. In an effort to keep weight down to compete, they ruined the product. Gas flame mostly solves this, but is increasingly uncommon.

[deleted]

Re: Troubling chemicals found in wide range of fast-food wrappers

#32

Post by rhcom2 »

gumby wrote: post #13
joezydeco wrote: post #4

How about thermal printer receipts? Most are coated with BPA. How many are in your pocket right now? How about the fact that most McDonalds grill their burgers on grills that are covered with disposable teflon sheets? They don't tell the public that.

> How about thermal printer receipts? Most are coated with BPA. BPA on thermal paper is indeed a worry (and of course most those "BPA-free" bottles use a different bisphenol plasticizer, just not bisphenol-A). > How about the fact that most McDonalds grill their burgers on grills that are covered with disposable teflon sheets? They don't tell the public that. But a teflon sheet? Teflon is so tightly linked that it is…

> I once swallowed some strips of teflon tape (settling an argument with a friend...) and they were bright white and intact (sharp edges where cut were still sharp) on the way out.

Oh god, thank goodness it didn't cut up your insides on the way out.

Re: Troubling chemicals found in wide range of fast-food wrappers

#33

Post by dpark »

joezydeco wrote: post #26
_ea1k wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is hard to find data, but it sounds like the grill temp could range as high as 425 F.

Recipes vary, but many go up to 375F (at least in this McD engineering document) https://www.filepicker.io/api/file/9dQcRSZ8TMeeM7Y8Lx6w I want to believe that teflon is indeed totally inert until 500F, but somehow I just don't trust that. It's the low-temp PFOA leakage into the product I'm looking at here, not the fumes released at higher temps. If the wrappers are doing it at ambient, what's happening at cooking te…

Why not? Given the number of people paranoid about teflon, I'd expect someone would have demonstrated the danger at lower temperatures by now if it exists.

Re: Troubling chemicals found in wide range of fast-food wrappers

#34

Post by koenigdavidmj »

ScottBurson wrote: post #30
gumby wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How about thermal printer receipts? Most are coated with BPA. BPA on thermal paper is indeed a worry (and of course most those "BPA-free" bottles use a different bisphenol plasticizer, just not bisphenol-A). > How about the fact that most McDonalds grill their burgers on grills that are covered with disposable teflon sheets? They don't tell the public that. But a teflon sheet? Teflon is so tightly linked that it is…

The breakdown products of Teflon are also toxic to the prostate, as I found out personally once by eating lots of eggs scrambled in a Teflon skillet. I avoid it now.

How much breakdown would really occur? If the whole point of Teflon is not to stick or react at all, I would expect that if you eat a brick of Teflon, you crap a brick of Teflon.

Re: Troubling chemicals found in wide range of fast-food wrappers

#35

Post by rando444 »

OnACoffeeBreak wrote: post #29
Neliquat wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disclaimer: I am an avid cast iron user. It seems like cast iron fails on electric cooktops, or in the case of much of the thin modern cast iron cookware. In an effort to keep weight down to compete, they ruined the product. Gas flame mostly solves this, but is increasingly uncommon.

Avid cast iron user here as well... I've been using heavy cast iron skillets and pots on an electric stove for over a decade and enjoying it with no issues. Could it be an issue with an induction-type electric cooktop? I never tried cast iron on one of those.

An induction stove would work several times better than a standard electric stove with cast iron, as well as heating the whole pan more evenly.

Re: Troubling chemicals found in wide range of fast-food wrappers

#36

Post by maxerickson »

VLM wrote: post #19
colanderman wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried cast-iron (mostly for pancakes) but found that it heated very unevenly (to the point of burning food in the center and not cooking food at the edge). I've found success with a multi-clad stainless steel skillet. Heating it to the Leidenfrost point [1] ensures that nothing sticks. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leidenfrost_effect#Leidenfrost...

That's why you pre-heat them in the oven. This freaks people out who've never done it. Whaa ... you're sticking a pan in an oven thats turned on? Because if you do that to a cheap stamped steel and plastic pan, the plastic handle will melt off. There's a reason CI pans have expensively attached solid cast iron handles and not bolted on plastic handles... You seasoned the pan by heating it to 400F in an oven till it s…

If you know the setting on the stovetop that holds the pan at the temp you want to cook at, you probably won't burn the seasoning by putting the burner modestly higher than that.

Re: Troubling chemicals found in wide range of fast-food wrappers

#37

Post by dpark »

VLM wrote: post #19
colanderman wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried cast-iron (mostly for pancakes) but found that it heated very unevenly (to the point of burning food in the center and not cooking food at the edge). I've found success with a multi-clad stainless steel skillet. Heating it to the Leidenfrost point [1] ensures that nothing sticks. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leidenfrost_effect#Leidenfrost...

That's why you pre-heat them in the oven. This freaks people out who've never done it. Whaa ... you're sticking a pan in an oven thats turned on? Because if you do that to a cheap stamped steel and plastic pan, the plastic handle will melt off. There's a reason CI pans have expensively attached solid cast iron handles and not bolted on plastic handles... You seasoned the pan by heating it to 400F in an oven till it s…

Heating my oven up to use a pan on the stove seems ridiculously inefficient. Also I don't sear at 400. That seems way to low for most things I'd cook in cast iron.

Also, I've not once used barkeepers friend on my stainless. It tends to clean up fine with a scotchbright pad. But I mostly use teflon pans these days.

Re: Troubling chemicals found in wide range of fast-food wrappers

#38

Post by nate_meurer »

ScottBurson wrote: post #30
gumby wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How about thermal printer receipts? Most are coated with BPA. BPA on thermal paper is indeed a worry (and of course most those "BPA-free" bottles use a different bisphenol plasticizer, just not bisphenol-A). > How about the fact that most McDonalds grill their burgers on grills that are covered with disposable teflon sheets? They don't tell the public that. But a teflon sheet? Teflon is so tightly linked that it is…

The breakdown products of Teflon are also toxic to the prostate, as I found out personally once by eating lots of eggs scrambled in a Teflon skillet. I avoid it now.

Would you mind saying more about what happened to you?

Re: Troubling chemicals found in wide range of fast-food wrappers

#39

Post by Cerium »

saiya-jin wrote: post #5

I do put my lunch at work on paper 2 plates, then take the lower one and cover the plate hence covering the food, put it into fridge and go to gym. lunch after gym. When I come from gym, there is not much food left anymore in our cold buffet, by far the healthiest food I can get there). after reading this, not so sure I want to touch those paper plates anymore, although there is no alternative at work...

Feel free to bring your own!

Re: Troubling chemicals found in wide range of fast-food wrappers

#40

Post by SippinLean »

ams6110 wrote: post #7

At home I cook on cast-iron pans with metal utensils. Once they are seasoned well they are remarkably non-stick and easy to clean with just hot water and a stiff brush.

No reason to go cast iron anymore. They rust, they heat unevenly, you have to care for the seasoning. You can get the same sear with better heat distribution with multi-ply stainless. Much lighter and easier to care for.

For eggs I have a small carbon-steel pan.

Post reply on HN