HelpfulGardener.com

TV News this morning said, throw away your metal and plastic kitchen utensils iron oxide & plastic are poisoning you.

I looked it up and Google search says, NOT TRUE

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Platypuskeeper

Well, in large amounts it'd be toxic. But iron and iron oxides are generally about as non-toxic as metal compounds get (which doesn't really say that much I suppose). It's the most prevalent metal in your body. And you typically ingest some every time you eat something prepared in an iron skillet or similar. (which IIRC, has been shown to help against iron deficiency)

You also don't easily absorb the iron from rust, because it's not very soluble. (iron supplements are usually other iron compounds) The recommended daily allowance is 18 mg, and an adult will easily tolerate more than twice that. (the RDA is about 10x more than for any other metal except zinc)

Anyway we don't give medical advice here, and besides, I'm not a toxicologist. But I'm pretty sure the amount required to do harm is substantially larger than the amount you could inadvertently swallow (unless you were doing something very very dumb). Looking at MSDS (saftey datasheets), most seem more concerned with inhaling rust powder than eating it. The literature also seems to focus on acute iron toxicity in small children. (which I take to imply that it's rare among those of us old enough to not randomly put stuff in our mouths)

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About 3 years ago wife went for her yearly medical check up she was low in iron. Doctor told her to start cooking in a case iron skillet, metal pots and use metal cooking utensils if your iron goes up you don't need to take iron pills.

Right now, I believe the main focus that’s driving the kitchen utensils news is the black plastic containers and utensils.

Analysis focused on black plastic found that plastic treated with toxic fire retardant chemicals (on electronics, if I remember?) had entered the recycling stream and has been contaminating them. The research only targeted black plastic and pointed out black plastic utensils and single-use and carry out/take-out containers.

I think I posted about it recently — let me find that one, but there has been more news and food-related media picking this up and circulating.

…metal kitchen products-wise, I personally firmly believe older non-stick coating that cracks and peels and emit toxic fumes if used at high heat are no good. I’m still trying to figure out if there are ANY safer alternatives among the newer non-stick pots and pans — such as “ceramic” coating — even though they’ve been around for quite a while now.

I had used cast iron skillets for a long time, but fell out of regular use after I got too busy to keep up with washing them right away and maintaining them. Now they are almost too heavy for me and not easy to use on solid surface cooktop rather than cooked electric or gas stove hobs.

I do occasionally indulge with cast iron waffle irons, takoyaki pan, and making cornbread in the big skillet, etc. I do also use my big skillet for baking round sourdough bread.

I use mostly heavy multi-layer bottomed stainless steel pots and pans. One other danger to keep in mind is if the stainless cladding becomes pock-marked on the inside, because the interior layer could be some metal that could turn out to be toxic.

All metal and plastic are potentially toxic or damaging to your pans. Go figure. I guess you have to learn to use chopsticks.

Long cooking chopsticks are useful for whisking type of action and up to maybe 1 inch chunks (this may depend on size of your hand and how much spread your can manage) as well as very skinny or thin ingredients like pasta and noodles in clear soup type of scenario, and for frying in oil, but not for scraping or scooping.

Chopsticks can also be tiring to hold and manipulate. (You can get or make chopsticks adapter to turn into forceps like action).

My absolute go-to are bamboo pot and pan utensils and the one I use frequently is long handled angled rectangular scrape/paddle with thin edges shaped like a rubber/silicon spatula. Another one that I like is large longer handled rice paddle shape. Better bamboo utensils like these are ergonomically curved and has scooped out surface from the interior side of the bamboo.

When I need sharper edge for loosening and lifting stubborn or larger/floppy food (like fried egg, omelette, grilled cheese, or fish for example) or I use slotted stainless turner. And I have stainless ladles in several sizes without and with slots and holes for scooping out liquid ingredients and individually smaller ingredients.

I do use silicone 400°F or higher heat tolerant spatulas for thick gravy, pudding, or creamy consistency ingredients. I’ve retired the one black one I had although it was useful unusual shape with narrow scraping part and very long handle… just in case.

That's true. Regular chopsticks work fine, but if you use the long cooking tongs, it is tiring to hold them. But great for grilling. Tongs work too, but they are made of metal as well.
It is hard to flip an egg with chopstick's, unless you are good with flipping the pan. ( I'm not). There are wooden ladles and I have seen some wood turners, I cook with wooden spoons all the time because they won't scratch pans. I have some bamboo spatulas, but they are mostly for rice. I have a set of wok tools, but the spider and scoop are better for moving food around than for turning and they are metal. They don't bother the carbon steel wok, but I don't try to use them on other kinds of cookware.

I just saw a new video that came out about the black plastic controversy a couple of days ago.

While I do agree that flame retardant chemicals should not be in food containers. It also points to the fact that when some group makes a conclusion about a single research project, it should be taken with a huge grain of salt.

1. People accepted what was reported as a fact but did not really check the credentials of the research or look at the research paper itself. They just went for the sensational headline with what could have been some ulterior motives

2. Always look at who funds the research. This research into black plastic consumer goods, toys, utensils, and containers was funded by a non-profit group Toxic Free Future. I think they probably had a bias and any research can be skewed to get the results you want especially if the group that pays for the study wants a specific outcome.

3. Although the study was published in a reputable source. One of the cardinal things needed to verify the conclusion is that the results can be duplicated. Preferably by similar research studies multiple times funded by groups that are less biased about the outcome.

4. Research errors. As pointed out in the video below. It is almost impossible not to come into contact with hazardous materials because it is all around us. The relative risk is dose dependent and the researchers failed in basic math and could not multiply correctly making a ten fold error. Reporting ten times the amount of toxic material leaching than there actually was. What they did report was still below the minimum action level, but the researchers of the initial study decided it was close enough.

5. Unrealistic testing to get what you want. In the video they gave the example of the black spatula being basically boiled in oil for 15 minutes to test how much toxins were released. In real life my spatula would have melted if it was in boiling oil that long.

It was pointed out in the video that there are good reasons black plastic and carbon black is desired. They said the main drawback is that it is a difficult product to make and the recycled black plastic used could come from things like electronic waste which may be contaminated with fire retardants and probably other stuff.

The real problem is that plastic is everywhere in our life and it is hard to get rid of. It takes up space in the landfills and have forever chemicals. Recycling plastic is one way to reuse the material, but there needs to be more oversight as to what those recycled products which may have many different contaminants can be used for.

The cost of recycling can cost more than making new products and purifying what is being recycled is a real problem. Contaminants in recycled products my go beyond just recycled plastics. Take compost for example, especially municipal compost which is not generally tested for herbicides or other contaminants.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljvA728 ... el=CBCNews