I recommend glass, ceramic, porcelain or stainless steel dinnerware and wooden or stainless steel cookware.
Melamine is used to make a variety of “hard plastic items that come into contact with food, such as cups, plates, bowls and utensils, because they are dishwasher safe, economical and durable.” If that word sounds familiar, it may be because melamine has also been illegally added to protein products to trick the system and make it appear that “food products,” such as pet foods, contain more protein than they actually do. In 2007, more than a thousand potentially contaminatedThe pet food products were recalled after “the chemical was found be a contaminant in the wheat gluten used in those products,” but not before it caused illness and death in pets across North America.
“Is alleged that China suppliers intentionally added melamine to falsely raise the measured protein content and therefore the monetary value of these products.” The pet food scandal was just the writing on the wall. The following year, “melamine was uncovered be the cause of an outbreak of urinary tract stones and kidney failure,” affecting hundreds of thousands of babies and young children across China. “Investigations revealed that the compound was illegally added to milk powder and infant formulas to falsify protein content.”
As I analyze it in my video. Are melamine plates and polyamide plastic utensils safe?In the United States, you can find in food packaging and is sneaked into animal feed. However, those who use melamine tableware may be exposed directly, as it migrates directly into food when exposed to heat. In fact, “cooking spoons and tableware made of melamine resin are not appropriate for microwaving and cooking,” according to food safety authorities. That’s fine, but what if you never cook with it, fry it, or microwave it? What happens if you only use melamine to eat?
In “A crossover study on noodle soup consumption in melamine bowls and total melamine excretion in urine,” researchers measured the amount of melamine flowing through the study subjects’ bodies compared to eating the same soup in ceramic bowls. Your findings? “Melamine tableware can release large amounts of melamine when used to serve foods at high temperatures,” and not even hot foods. “Melamine migration can be detectable in everyday melamine tableware, even at low temperatures,” such as simply warm water. Why do we care? Because the level of melamine you are exposed to “is significantly associated with impaired kidney function in patients with early-stage CKD,” chronic kidney disease, in which even “relatively low levels of melamine can cause a rapid decline in kidney function.” Therefore, I would suggest glass, ceramic, porcelain or stainless steel dinnerware.
What about polyamide utensils, the common black plastic spoons, spatulas and the like? All kinds of different plastic materials are used. used in kitchen utensils. Polyamide is “normally used for turners [spatulas] or ladles due to their high resistance to heat and oil.” “However, the components of this plastic can emigrate from utensils to food and consequently be ingested by consumers.” Of the 33 utensils tested, almost 1 in 3 exceeded the upper safety limit. The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment “recommends that consumers keep contact with food as brief as possible when using PA [polyamide] kitchen appliances, especially at high temperatures”, such as above the temperature at which we can drink hot tea or coffee.
A different study on black plastic kitchen utensils found about a third is contaminated with flame retardant chemicals. Because? Because it can be made from recycled plastic from electronic equipment that was impregnated with that material. Then, if the polyamide utensil is submerged in oil, the chemicals can leach out, suggesting that the use of such “frying utensils may lead to considerable dietary exposure.”
The black dye of some polyamide utensils can filter out too. Over time, with enough use, the levels drop, but it may take the equivalent of boiling utensils for about a hundred hours before dye leakage approaches safe levels. It’s probably easier to use wooden or stainless steel utensils.
This is the last in a three-part series of cookware videos. If you missed the others, check out Are containers, bottles and aluminum foil safe? and Stainless steel or cast iron: which cookware is better? Is Teflon safe?.
It may not be safe to use melamine in the microwave, but what about microwaving in general? See Are microwaves safe? and The effects of radiation escaping from microwave ovens.
