I was under the impression that all heated plastic releases cancer causing carcinogens, so why are companies able to sell products who’s instructed cooking method is harmful to people’s health?
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“Plastic” is a broad category of materials. Some are microwave safe and other aren’t but many people don’t know the safe ones exist and treat the no-plastic rule as all encompassing.
Some parties will acknowledge the safe plastics claim but argue there are no microwave safe plastics in reality. To me that has always felt more rooted in fear, ignorance, and naturalism than science.
Meat releases cancer-causing carcinogens when it is heated. If you’ve eaten bacon or a steak, you ate cancer-causing carcinogens.
It turns out that if those plastic carcinogens are in a small enough amount, the government/inspectors sigh and say the dinner is no less harmful than if you grilled some meat and ate it, and that calling it dangerous would be ridiculous.
So as long as the plastics used emit “safe” amounts of carcinogens, they are allowed. Not all plastics behave the same way in microwaves. It’s also notable that the amount they release gets worse *the more you use them*, but most of these microwavable dinner trays are not intended to be reused.
Some people still don’t trust that, but unless you’re eating a very careful diet lots of normally-cooked foods contain just about as many carcinogens as a microwaved dinner might. You should be more worried about the sodium, excess calories, excess carbohydrates, and the possibility of trans fat.
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Not all heated plastic will release carcinogens, and even if they do, it may not be at a detectable level.
Some plastics also have the following properties:
– High(er) thermal resistance
– Low(er) leechable content
– Thermal resistant coating
(And many more other properties).
Especially for food-grade containers, companies have to demonstrate to the FDA that 1) the initial container is food-safe (think bottles / jars / trays); 2) if a cooking implement (aka the tray) is intended for food preparation, that it is food safe at both storage and preparation temperatures; 3) the food is safe to eat after it is prepared in or out of the implement. Explaining how each of them is done is out of bounds for ELI5 than I already am.
It’s not safe. The FDA approves things that aren’t healthy for human consumption all the time.
All heated plastic releases toxic, carcinogenic chemicals.
Like all things, certain people have decided a certain amount are safe.
This is usually true! Dose matters!
But, the people saying what the safe amount is are not always to be trusted.
Don’t heat shit up in plastic. Always transfer it to a ceramic dish
Not all heated plastic. Plastic can be soft, hard, meltable, firm, uv cured, solely chemically cured, lots of stuff. But you’re right, heating plastic near your food is recently innovated ground and it sure seems like cancer is an issue possibly related.
Two points that seem to be missed is the other answers, one I am sure of,the other, less so (but I still thinkbis right).
First, FDA does not approve food for sale. It can pull foods from the market, but there is no pre-market approval of foods in the same way there is for drugs. I am sure of this point.
Second (less sure), what you are talking about is not a food, but a product accompanying the food used in its preparation. I’m not sure FDA has the authority to regulate that. It might be a CPSC issue. If there are no reports of adverse incidents, or even a quantifiable measure of risk, I’m not sure CPSC would get involved.
Frequently, the instructions involve heating it enough to kill germs. The problem is that the more you heat it, the more carcinogens are released into the food. Some companies don’t cook their chicken first and trust the consumer to cook it properly. This should be illegal. I’ve stopped buying frozen dinners that contain meat.
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