Microwaving Frozen Veggies in a Plastic Bag (Read 93 times)

I looked into the safety of ZipLoc bags recently because I was wondering if the plastic is actually safe for food storage.  I found this page on their website:

http://www.ziploc.com/Sustainability/Pages/Safety-and-Plastics.aspx

And this:

http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/product-reviews/consumer-protection/plastic-safety-heat-food-6

The problem with plastics is they leach chemicals, such as dioxins and BPA.  Although companies say their products are food/microwave safe, it just means they're safe from known problems.  Who knows what chemicals they'll discover to be carcinogenic in the future.

Plastic bags in microwaves just seems intuitively problematic.  Possibly we should just trust our intuitions on this.  An extra few minutes spent steaming the veggies on the stovetop is well worth it...for the peace of mind, if nothing else.

Except that many types of pots and pans (non-stick, aluminum) are potentially toxic.  Anything made in China.  One could drive themselves insane trying to eliminate every potential risk.

Heating a liquid in a plastic container, and cooking solid veggies in a plastic bag, are not exactly the same thing (a lot less surface area in contact and barriers to leaching, like cell walls).

I do this all the time, but use a rubbermaid tupperware-type container. Works great.

Plastic....

(I use them too)

I stopped worrying about it when I read that beer was a carcinogen.  It seems like almost everything is a carcinogen when given in large quantities to rats.

But if you use stainless steel cookware on the stovetop (no nonstick, no aluminum), that problem is easily eliminated, isn't it?

Do you know where it was made, and what they put in the alloy?  Are you sure it isn't from China or somewhere else where they may have cut costs by using poor quality control or cheap source material that contained heavy metals?

Have you tested the arsenic level of the water you're steaming them with?