Is Microwave-safe plastic really safe?

Ready meals have been around since the 1950s. Yet the plastic packaging used in them is harmful to the planet and to people. 

Greenpeace’s recent analysis of 24 research papers in leading scientific journals found that plastic packaging used for ready meals and takeaways poses a potentially serious risk for human health. The packaging, especially when heated, can release large amounts of microplastics and chemicals into the food that will be eaten. 

One study detected 326,000 to 534,000 microplastic particles entering the food after just 5 minutes of microwaving. Oven-heating other items in their plastic packaging, like whole chickens, also increases the microplastics in the food but not as much as microwaving.

In Greenpeace’s analysis, two of the studies discovered that microwaving food in plastic containers after freezing it was particularly dangerous. Freezing can make the plastic brittle, which can lead to more microplastics being released due to the vibrations of microwave cooking.

Many plastic ready-to-cook containers are labelled as microwave-safe or oven-safe. But this ‘safety’ doesn’t consider the microplastics and plastic chemicals that get released when the containers are heated.

At least 1,396 plastic-related chemicals have been found in human bodies. Some of these chemicals are known to be harmful and can affect fertility, pregnancy, thyroid function, IQ levels, cardiovascular disease and many types of cancer.

Of the over 16,000 chemicals in plastic, at least 4,200 are highly hazardous to human and planetary health; many others have never been tested. Less than 6% of these 16,000 chemicals are globally regulated.

Here are some tips for how to help:

• Urge your local food shops and restaurants to cut their use of plastic and provide safer alternatives.

• Sign petitions relating to plastic packaging.

• Avoid buying food in plastic packaging wherever possible.

• Use reusable non-plastic containers whenever you can.

• Where possible, rinse the surface of food that’s been wrapped in plastic to remove any microplastics.

• Avoid putting hot food into plastic containers.

• If you do need to buy ready-to-cook food, it’s safer to transfer it to a non-plastic container (e.g. glass) before cooking/reheating it.

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For more information contact: info@scarabtrust.org.uk

Image: Frozen TV dinner - Image by Sir Beluga, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (ST ref: 1387)