I don’t buy bottled water but I do buy salad, olives, parmesan cheese, etc. in little plastic containers with lids. They can’t be recycled, just thrown away. And they’re so useful for holding leftovers, and they’re free with purchase. But am I inadvertantly poisoning myself and the family by storing my leftover spaghetti sauce in a deli container? (Years ago I bought nice Rubbermaid storage containers, which I can’t even find any more. Those are made of plastic, too. Are THEY poisonous?)
If you are OK with using them in the first place (which, admittedly, some people aren’t), then I believe that if you wash them well they are OK to be reused. What you want to be super-careful about is microwaving them – not all plastics are suitable for microwaving, and can definitely leech nasty stuff into your food if heated beyond a certain point.
i agree using deli containers cold and room temperature is fine. they will deform if heated too much in a microwave. i’m uncertain about toxins before that point.
Rubbermaid did make some storage containers that could be microwaved.
Oh, these are way too thin to heat stuff up in, they’d melt in less than a minute. There’s a ‘5’ in the triangle on the bottom…I can’t imagine if they sell food in these things, they wouldn’t be safe to store food in.
They ARE fine to store food in. The problem is in cleaning them thoroughly before reusing them.
Some products, like plastic water bottles, are difficult to clean completely because of the shape (how do you get a dishcloth or brush inside to wash them?). And some other types of plastic tend to get scratches easily, which make them harder to clean and provide a place for bacteria to grow.
Personally, I’ll reuse them once or twice, then recycle them. After all, you get them really cheaply.
They dissolved into your food.
The 5 means it’s polypropylene. It’s relatively heat resistant (mp ~160C) so for that reason it is often used for food containers that are hot-filled or have to withstand boiling water.
:eek:
My Rubbermaid containers have all different numbers on the bottom. I sent an e-mail to Rubbermaid asking which ones were the most poisonous, but they never replied.And the surface on the inside is all warped from microwaving over the years, so yeah, I do believe they dissolved into the food somewhat.
I’m pretty sure the problem is storing oily foods in these kinds of containers. Since fats tend to heat up quicker than water in the microwave, they can get superheated, and warp/scar the containers easily. Add to that the fact that fat sticks to these plastics particularly well, and you have a situation where your containers will easily warp.