Microwaving plastic

neil_g said:
where do you stand on the oestrogen issue of some plastics in the food/drinks industry? serious question.
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It’s a good question. The only thing I will say is that Bisphenol A, a chemical used in polycarbonate (untypical for food containers to use this as it’s a very hard plastic) but not unheard of. Does have some high dose health issues. However its really only an isssue for very young children in their long term. For grown adults you would have to eat a tub made from polycarbonate for it to be an issue, but by then you have more problems than BPA. (BPA of course essentially mimics ostrogen in the body)

Again, polycarbonate is quite uncommon in food, plastics like polyethylene in various forms is way more common.

Any more questions fire them away :)
 
Shouldn't need to microwave butter at this time of year. I keep my butter dish on the worktop so it's always spreadable (outside of the cold months)
 
harry5522 said:
It’s a good question. The only thing I will say is that Bisphenol A, a chemical used in polycarbonate (untypical for food containers to use this as it’s a very hard plastic) but not unheard of. Does have some high dose health issues. However its really only an isssue for very young children in their long term. For grown adults you would have to eat a tub made from polycarbonate for it to be an issue, but by then you have more problems than BPA. (BPA of course essentially mimics ostrogen in the body)

Again, polycarbonate is quite uncommon in food, plastics like polyethylene in various forms is way more common.

Any more questions fire them away :)
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Thanks for the reply :) What about hdpe? Seems to be linked more and more to oestrogen leaching?
 
Rroff said:
Dunno if there is some historic reason for it other than tradition or whatever - my grandparents on both sides of the family used to use a fancy butter dish, no one I know really these days bothers.
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IIRC it comes from storing it in a larder which was (ideally) cooler than the rest of the house, the ceramic butter dish helped keep the butter cool, and a lot also had a top which helped prevent insects and vermin from getting to it.
The dish itself also made it easier to handle after it had been opened in the days of buying butter wrapped in paper :)

We use a small clip lock container for butter as my father prefers it to marge, but if it's left in the fridge it's too solid to spread on bread, so we put half a block in the plastic tub and it's left on the side for him (the tub then gets washed every couple of days).
 
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