Plastic and Food Safety: Is It Dangerous to Store Food in Plastic Containers? Are Plastics Poisoning Our Food?

Putting your food in plastic containers to store in the fridge, or to heat (or cook) in the microwave: is it safe?  What about buying food that has been packaged in plastic - has that food been compromised?  Does plastic poison food and make the food toxic or carcinogenic?

1.  Answer:  No One Knows - But Some Are Worried

It's pretty much a given among those in both the food and packaging industries that any food that is put into plastic (wrapped, boxed, whatever) will have some of that plastic "leach" or "migrate" into the food.  It's even got a name:  "inevitable transfer."

Doesn't that make you feel safe already?  


In a quote on WebMD, a researcher from Tufts University is quoted, explaining that "virtually all" food that is put into plastic will have trace amounts of plastic leach or migrate into the food.  Heat the food, and this increases.  Also, put certain types of food in plastic and there will be more transfer than with other types of food:  fats, acids, and salts boost the transfer dance.

When asked how much gets from the plastic to the food to our bodies, the Tufts researcher replied that no one really knows -- no research exists to give us an answer to that question.

It gets better.  According to the senior scientist with the EnvironmentalWorking Group, also quoted by WebMD, when food containers are considered "safe" these days, it's not because they have been proved to be safe, but because they have not been proven to be dangerous.  That's a big difference. 

BPA Is Scary

BPA is found in lots and lots of plastic food packaging, and (surprise) it was considered safe until some folk looked a little deeper into the issue and decided that maybe BPA isn't so safe after all.

Scientists are already warning that BPA may be toxic to humans - and while lots of warnings have gone out about water bottles made with BPA, the bigger issue is the BPA that is found in canned foods.  These days, lots of cans are lined with plastic and then food is put in them.  The BPA in that plastic can lining is already known to leach into the food AND into the human body.  What happens then?  No one knows the whole story yet but it is known that BPA will mess with human hormones, particularly estrogen.

Phthalates Are Scary, Too

Phthalates is a name given to a bunch of chemicals used in all sorts of stuff, and today it's sad but true that these phthalates ("THAL-ates") float around in the indoor dust we breathe.  Already, most Americans have phthalates in their bodies according to research studies by the Center for Disease Control, and they are serious even that they've been banned in Europe for several years now.

How does this stuff get into our bodies?  Get this:  it's not clear.  Some think it comes through what we eat, from plastic packaging for example.

What is known is that phthalates also mess with human hormones, in this case, testosterone.

Oh, and cooking in Teflon?  While I was reading up on this, I ran across a warning on WebMD that warns to never cook on non-stick cookware with a pet bird in the kitchen, because the fumes from overheated non-stick cookware can kill the bird "in seconds."

Oh, that makes me feel safe. 

2  What to Do?  Avoid Plastic as Much as Possible, Of Course.


Here are some 15 tips to get Plastics Out of Your Food:

1.  cook in cast iron
2.  avoid a microwave
3.  if you must use a microwave, then wrap your food in paper towels when heating and place on a real plate, not a plastic one
4.  use wax paper to wrap food for storing in the fridge (get some rubber bands, it helps)
5.  save glass jars and reuse them for food storage
6.  eat off of glass plates
7.  drink out of glassware not plastic
8. use metal forks, knives, and spoons (or wooden ones for cooking)
9. throw out your plastic stuff
10.  don't use parchment paper -- it's covered with a "Non-Stick"coating and that is silicon and it's sometimes got some sulfuric acid, too.  It's not just paper. 
11. buy fresh food as much as possible
12. observe how food is packaged and avoid plastic packaging as much as possible, especially plastic bottles
13. once home, store all food in non-plastic containers
14. do not cook with plastic stuff (microwave plates, plastic spoons, nonstick ware)
15.  do not eat with plastic stuff (plastic plates, glasses, etc.) - get paper plates if you don't want to wash dishes!

Sources (in addition to the above hyperlinks):

WebMD (and links therein)
FDA
Harvard.edu (and links therein)
Univ of Houston (and links therein)
NIH

Products Made From Petroleum: YIKES!!

With gas prices rising, there's lots of talk about how to be more efficient with the car. There's car pooling. There's doing errands in a strategized way (no more zig-zagging around town). Some are taking the bus to work, and yesterday I saw a neighbor rolling a shiny new wheelie cart of groceries home from the store.

These are all great things, but Big Oil impacts our daily lives much more than in our gas tanks. According to Rankin Energy, one 42-gallon barrel of oil creates 19.4 gallons of gasoline. The rest of that barrel goes into making other products - Rankin estimates there are over 6000 items using oil in their manufacturing.

Here's a partial list of products with petroleum as an ingredient (this is only a small sample):

nylon zippers
ballet tights
plastic hangers
pantyhose
permanent press clothing
flip flops/thongs
fake fur
polyester clothing
ball point pens
ink
computer diskettes
computers
copiers
magic markers
telephones
microfilm
cameras
earphones
footballs
knitting needles
tennis racquets
golf balls
baby aspirin
stuffed animals
band aids
Vaseline
rubbing alcohol
Pepto-Bismol
hair coloring
soap
cough syrup
hair spray
lipstick
denture adhesives
trash bags
egg cartons
freezer bags
candles
wax paper
nylon spatulas
Teflon pans
Formica
linoleum
garden hoses
plungers
floor wax
Plexiglas
spray paint
Anti-freeze
balloons
dog toys
flea collars
CDROMs
check book covers
shopping bags
video cassettes
credit cards
dice
watch bands


Sources: Illinois Department of Natural Resources; Rankin Energy

See also: 16 CFR 1700 (February 16, 1997)(OnlineDOCID:fr26fe97-25)(Consumer Product Safety Commission, Proposed RuleMaking: Household Products Containing Petroleum Distillates and Other
Hydrocarbons)

'"Nuking" Food in Plastic Containers - Is It Dangerous?

While taking a "doggie-bagged" styrofoam container from the microwave, only to find a portion of the container has melded with the food, hopefully gives enough pause that this food isn't eaten, others argue no plastic containers should be trusted. Some argue that microwaves shouldn't be trusted, as well.

Microwave critics warn that the way that microwaves heat the food causes abnormalities at the food's cellular level, which lessens its nutritional value if not more. For more on this argument, visit mercola. com's collection of articles or read The Microwave News.

As for microwaving food in plastic, many criticize that the plastic containers contain chemicals such as dioxins (which are toxic) as well as others, like Bisphenol-A (which is a synthetic estrogen that may cause early menstruation in little girls). For more discussion on plastic containers, visit The Minnisota Daily's article, or dr.mercola's compilation of links.

What's the alternative? A toaster oven and a tea kettle work fine for me. I haven't noticed a loss of time since tossing my microwave, and I use glass instead of plastic whenever possible. I save the pickle jars, etc. and I find those one quart canning jars have 1000s of uses, in lieu of those disposable plastic storage options. I find the food tastes better coming from the toaster oven, and it's actually faster to boil water for tea in the kettle than it was to heat the mug in the 'wave.

Paper or Plastic?

Leaving the crafting question aside (paper wins), which is better: paper or plastic bags at the grocery store? The Institute for Lifecycle Environmental Assessment, after much scientific study, voted plastic in 1990. However, in 1990 the Simpsons had just started on TV and Bush the First had only been president for one year. Perhaps more data is needed.

The plastic bag folk provide a site that breaks the choice down into three components - reduce, reuse, recycle -- and they suggest plastic is the better option. (Duh.)

However, even the paper people at treehugger.org vote plastic is the lesser of two evils, after much consideration. Wow.

So, I guess the answer is .... plastic, please.