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The Kitchen TableCooking
petalique

Phthalic symbols?

last year
last modified: last year

Phthalic symbols?

➡️ https://apple.news/AW59Wx6K0SIi4kVeHwfvLRw

There’s been quite a bit of news lately on phthalates — clear odorless liquids added to many plastics and fragrances to increase their durability. They never break down and are thus referred to as “forever chemicals.”

Phthalates are now suspected of contributing to heart, disease and death. There are many recent reports of these studies so you can just do a search on phthalates health.

It was a section on this a few nights ago on Anderson Cooper 360. There’s a little bit of additional information for example plastics with recycling numbers 3, 6, and 7 he appeared to have a large larger concentration of phthaltes.

Plastics and fragrances with phthalates in them are so common-place a person would go crazy trying to find a way to eliminate all of these plastic products or fragrances, especially plastics in which our food is stored or comes into close contact.

One recommendation was to not even put plastic in the dishwasher!

Other recommendations make more sense, such not heating up plastics in the microwave. Don’t use them to heat fruit in. Don’t eat hot food out of them.

But these products are so pervasive that it is almost impossible to get a takeout dinner without it coming in a plastic container or a Styrofoam container. A couple of days ago I was thinking of all the things that we have that are made of plastic that our food is in contact with, and it is ubiquitous and insidious.

Catchup, mayonnaise, pickles, bags of sunflower seeds, beverages, marerine or hearth healthy butter alternative and peanuts on and on and on. I believe that the inside of a lot of canned goods are coded with a nonstick forever chemical product which probably contains phthalates. So anything from canned vegetables to fruit to cat food to you name it probably has this exposure to phthalates. Of course these products are used in medical equipment and disposable items from ID solutions to blood.

I have some plastic canisters in which I store things like sugar and all purpose flour and some dried shiitake mushrooms that I use for Chinese cooking. These have been dropped a few times and have a few cracks and that means if I elected to go for glass over plastic, I would have been replacing a bunch of them already.

The other article that I read suggested not to use nonstick pans and cookware. I think it’s probably not even safe to be touching my iPad keyboard.

Here is one of the articles, but there are many more. Very interesting. That in the article that I saw today suggesting that household dust is laden with micro and nano plastics. I think I’m a goner.

➡️ https://apple.news/AW59Wx6K0SIi4kVeHwfvLRw

If you cannot access this, go to Science Magazine . com


PS This is not something to panic over, but just be mindful.

Featured Answer
  • last year

    I also do not put plastic in the DW, and one of the reasons is that there is almost always a residue left on it that I have to clean off, and cleaning that off is more difficult than washing the plastic by hand in the first place.

    Comments (8)

    • last year
      last modified: last year

      Thanks, I’ll read up on it. I think it would be futile to try to eliminate all plastic/food content, but it can't hurt to try to reduce exposure. Interesting about the dishwasher, as I've recently tried to stop washing plastic in mine. Only because I was thinking of the heat. I just bought a bunch of glass storage containers, yes the lids are plastic but there won't be much direct food contact. Advantage, you can throw the containers themselves in the oven and microwave without worry. I'm also weening myself off non-stick, and have been pleasantly surprised with how easy that's been, with some exceptions.

      Not much science behind my choices, just doing what feels right; these findings might vindicate them somewhat..

      petalique thanked foodonastump
    • last year

      If you throw glass containers, they can break. The ones I have are not oven-safe, and so I can only use them for storing food, although they are microwave safe.

      I used to have all my food stored in glass containers, but so many of them broke during the 1994 quake that I switched to plastic. However, I have been slowly going back to glass and just not worrying that much about it. It is a huge mess to clean up, however.

      petalique thanked Lars
    • last year

      We put no plastic of any kind into a dishwasher. And have been doing that for a long time.

      The dishwasher brand we've used for the past 25+ years have an internal water heater (not a dryer element) that gets the water extremely hot. I know many have that now. It never seemed like a good idea to expose plastic items to such extremely hot water.

      petalique thanked Elmer J Fudd
    • last year

      Sure, some plastics melt, others are more reistant (the translucent pint or quart deli containers, for example.


      I think the admonition was not for plastic melting, but for the possibility that phthalates could leach out into the wash or rinse water and get deposited on dinnerware, glass or metal utensils.


    • last year

      I believe plastics tend to leach more at higher temperatures.

      petalique thanked foodonastump
    • last year

      Yes, my concern has been about leeching. Not melting.

      petalique thanked Elmer J Fudd
    • last year
      last modified: last year

      I do my best to avoid food packaged in plastic. we have a wonderful food co-op, which sells mostly organic foods. I can get p-nut butter, mayo, pickles, vinegars, ketchup, mustard, honey and many other things, all in glass jars, so that’s what I buy. Lots of their dry goods, cereals,nuts, pasta and grains are available in bulk. You can bring mason jars to fill with bulk foods. we are a pretty ’crunchy’ community, so many, many restaurants avoid plastic and styrofoam containers and use paper and cardboard instead. I love sparkling mineral water but only buy glass bottles. Lot’s of things are available if you avoid corporate national brands and shop around.

      petalique thanked olychick
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