Black Plastic Kitchen Utensils & Food Containers May Contain Toxic Chemical

[launderess]

Something else to worry about.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/10/01/health/flame-retardant-black-plastic-wellness/index.html

Black Plastic Kitchen Utensils, Takeout Containers — Even Some Toys — Linked to Cancer-Causing Chemicals

Researchers found toxic flame retardants in 85% of the screened consumer products.

people.com

 

[qsd-dan]

For the last 25 years, I have always assumed that plastic anything will leach toxins. Quit using anything plastic that touches food where possible.

 

[launderess]

Have some black plastic kitchen untisils (spoons, ladle, spatulas, dumpling/ravioli thingy and two spatulas. Purchased set years ago when first setting up housekeeping but rarely use. In fact only time really bother is when using various dark lined pots/pans (set if KitchenAid gifted to one by someone moving house) to keep from nicking interior.

With this bit of information will likely keep them in drawers. Do reuse those black plastic things prepared foods come in for storing things in fridge or sending people home with leftovers.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Measuring spoons, a number of spatulas, etc.

If any of that's really true, I think I'd have been dead by now...

-- Dave

 

[tolivac]

I just bought some black kitchen tools-now I will need to get some SS ones and put the black ones in the back corner of the pantry.

 

[snail]

Oh no all my food touches those

I meal prep every weekend. All of my food ends up in those small square black plastic containers. I then microwave it. I'm not sure I could switch to glass. I end up eating 26 meals in a week. My diet is extremely healthy though so maybe it will offset the toxins in the plastic??

 

[appnut]

I got some black utensils similar to pictured in the first article when I got my induction stove May 2017 so I wouldn't scratch my new Cuisinart Multiclad Pro cookware. I rarely use any of these utensils during the cooking process as I usually use wooden spoons of various sizes and some white plastic/silicone?? spoons for all the stirring and such while cooking. I only use those large black utensils when ladeling out soups, chili or emptying ingredients in large amounts to serving bowls and platters.

But I probably will replace this set with comparable items at some point that are white.

 

[circlew]

Bob, white plastic is notorious for staining from tomato products. You might want to consider commercial stainless steel utensils such as Vollrath. Given reasonable care, they will last many decades.

 

[appnut]

Tom, I'm so worried I"ll scratch my Cuisinart induction cookware. I can deal with tomato stained items, but these I won't be using as much as I use my existing wooden and plastic spoons. It's rare I use my existing black materials, but I probably could use them the brief amount of time I do. I don'st soak them in pots of food and such.

 

[mattl]

Well worn cookware is a sign of a well used kitchen and good meals.

 

[circlew]

Bob, does it have some type of non-stick coating? I've never scratched any of my SS cookware with the utensils.

 

[mrboilwash]

I find it hard to believe that recycled plastic can find its way into articles for food.
Aren`t there any regulations in the US like we have them in the EU to avoid this or are they simply ignored by careless manufacturers?

Whatever the reason is it has always been good advice not to buy anything that smells toxic, whether it`s meant for food contact or not.
If something smells like new car tires, tar or anything similar then don`t buy! The more it stinks the more poisonous it is.
It`s not only flame retardants in spatulas and food containers, things like plasticizers and PAHs can also enter our bodies in large quantities over the skin from a cheap rubberized screwdriver, flip flops or whatever else.

The same holds true for clothes and textiles. If it smells unpleasant better don`t buy. Or if it doesn`t come out with repeated washings better toss it.

 

[mrboilwash]

On a side note the older generation may still remember the chemical toxic fumes from the flame retardants coupled with burned dust when radios and TV sets still had "hot" tubes and came in wooden cabinets.
Even back then our grandparents knew it was essential for our health to open the windows for proper ventilation after a long TV night.

 

[jamiel]

my husband is an audiophile, and we also have a console stereo (1964 Fisher Futura) which is fun. The amount of ozone it produces, though is noticeable (right after we got it he was playing it using Bluetooth for a radio station in California. I was upstairs (it sits near the stairway) and as I came downstairs for something I had the most amazing deja vu--with the odor of the ozone wafting upstairs as I heard the talk of the radio station....swept me back to childhood!

 

[mrboilwash]

Sorry for bringing an old thread back alive, but I think it`s not that old to justify starting a new one.

So the German consumer magazine Test picked up the story about toxic flame retardants in black US cooking utensils, sent 26 different EU samples to a lab and all of them were deemed okay.

Not a huge surprise we never made it to TTIP when even consumer protection standards about cooking utensils differ that much.

Schadstoffe in Pfannenwendern: Entwarnung für den deutschen Markt

Die Stiftung Warentest hat 26 Pfannenwender untersucht. Problematische Flammschutzmittel fanden wir nicht. Ist Ihrer dabei?

www.test.de

 

[johnb300m]

The regulatory structure in the US is 180 degrees from the EU.
In the US, as long as (and sometimes not) products contain pre-approved or other ingredients “generally assumed as safe,” they do not need to be tested in the US. Unless they are Class 1 medical devices.
Otherwise it’s “free market” and would need to have extensive evidence after the fact, that it’s harming dozens, thousands, or even millions of people, before it will be considered for regulation. And even then, industry will lobby and fight to keep the items salable.
It’s my understanding in the EU that if a company wants to sell something, they have to test and prove it is safe PRIOR to going to market.

Regarding the plastics.
Even today with more awareness, I still see people microwaving food in plastic containers with bubbling edges inside them. Yum. Enjoy your endocrine disrupters I guess.