"Are Melamine Dishes and Polyamide Plastic Utensils Safe?"
Melamine is used to make a variety of hard plastic cups, plates, bowls, and
utensils because they're dishwasher safe, inexpensive, and durable.
If that word sounds familiar, it may be because melamine is
also illegally added to protein products to game the system
to make it appear that pet food has more protein than it does, for example.
By 2007, more than 1,000 potentially contaminated pet food products
were recalled after it was found to be a contaminant in the wheat gluten
used in those products, but not before it caused disease
and death in pets throughout North America.
It is presumed that the melamine was intentionally added by suppliers
in China to falsely elevate the measured protein content
and, hence, the monetary value of these products.
And the pet food scandal was just the writing on the wall.
The next year, melamine was discovered to cause of an outbreak
of kidney stones and kidney failure, affecting hundreds of thousands
of infants and young children throughout China when melamine was used
to falsify the protein content of infant formula and powdered milk.
In the U.S. you can find it in food packaging,
and sneaking its way into animal feed,
but those using melamine dishware can be exposed directly,
migrating straight into the food upon exposure to heat.
So yeah, cooking spoons and dishes made out of melamine are not suited
for microwaves and cooking, according to food safety authorities.
OK, but what if you never cook with it, fry with it, or microwave it?
What if you just use it to eat out of?
A Crossover Study of Noodle Soup Consumption in Melamine Bowls
versus the same soup eaten out of ceramic bowls
and then just measuring the amount of melamine flowing through their bodies.
And they found that melamine tableware may release large amounts of melamine
when used to serve high-temperature foods, and not even hot foods.
Melamine migration can be detectable from melamine tableware,
even at low temperatures, like just warm water.
Why do we care? Because the level of melamine you're exposed to
is significantly associated with kidney function deterioration in patients
with early-stage chronic kidney disease, in which even relatively
low melamine levels may cause a rapid decline in kidney function.
So, I would suggest glass, ceramic, porcelain,
or stainless-steel tableware instead. What about polyamide utensils?
All sorts of different plastic materials are used in kitchen utensils.
Polyamide is typically used for spatulas or ladles
due to their high heat and oil resistance.
However, components of this plastic can migrate from the utensils
into the food and consequently be ingested by consumers.
Out of 33 utensils tested, nearly 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 polyamide kitchen gadgets, especially
above the temperature at which like hot tea or coffee might be served at.
A different survey of black plastic kitchen utensils found that,
again, about a third contaminated with flame retardant chemicals.
Why? Because it may be made from plastic recycled from
electronic equipment that was impregnated with the stuff.
And then should you dip it in oil, the chemicals can trickle out,
suggesting using such utensils for frying could lead
to considerable dietary exposure.
And the black dye itself in some black polyamide utensils can leach out as well.
Eventually, with enough use the levels drop,
but it may take the equivalent of boiling the utensils for about 100 hours
before the dye leaking would approach safety levels.
Probably just easier to use utensils that are wooden or stainless steel.