Safer Plastics: In the Kitchen

The finale for our Safer Plastics series–plastics for eating, drinking and storing food.

The health issue is the same: some plastics contain chemicals like Bisphenol-A (a hormone disruptor) that can leach from plastic containers into the food or drink they contain.

Use all plastics safely:

• Don’t heat foods in plastic containers. Use glass.

• Never put any plastic or plastic wrap in the microwave. Microwave safe means the container won’t melt, not that it won’t leach chemicals when heated.

Instead, when covering foods use a waxed paper or a white paper towel. Recycled brown paper towels are unsafe in the microwave, but call the manufacturer to be sure as they are always refining their products.

• Wait until food cools before storing in a plastic container.

• Don’t reuse bottled water bottles (Crystal Geyser, Evian, etc.)

• Discard all scratched, hazy or worn plastics.

Identify safe plastics:

• Check the triangle on the bottom of the container for a number. This detective trick is less helpful with plastic bags. If there isn’t a number, call the manufacturer. Don’t assume that a brand using safe plastic for one product uses that same plastic for all their products.

• Choose # 1, 2, 4 and 5.

• Avoid # 3, 6 and 7.

Try these products:

Plastic containers
Rubbermaid

Ziplock

Gladware

Pyrex glass food storage containers
Kelly uses these for everything, great for reheating food in the oven.

Plastic wrap
Glad Cling Wrap

Saran Cling Plus

Plastic bags
Glad Food Storage, Glad Zipper Freezer Bags, Sandwich Bags

Hefty One Zip Storage Bags

Ziplock Bags, Double Guard Freezer Bags