Black Plastic Spatulas and Cooking Utensils
DecaBDE was banned in the U.S. in 2021, although manufacturers had until 2023 to remove it from their products, because research showed it was linked to the development of cancer, brain development and other health issues. Yet here’s the disturbing part. DecaBDE was found in nearly three-quarters of the black plastic items tested. These aren’t chemicals companies intentionally add to kitchen tools.
The toxic compounds are making their way into the black plastic supply through the recycling of black plastic electronics, and BFRs and other flame retardants are added to these appliances to reduce the risk of them catching on fire, and when the electronics get recycled alongside other types of black plastic, they contaminate the whole lot. Eighty-five percent of tested products contained flame retardants. So what does this mean when you’re flipping pancakes or stirring hot pasta sauce?
Heating up plastic, say, reheating leftovers in a black plastic takeout box, or flipping bacon strips sizzling in an oiled pan with a plastic spatula, or stirring pasta with a plastic spoon, increases the rate of chemical migration, which means more heat equals more chemicals leaching into your food. Brominated flame retardants have been linked to cancer, hormone disruption, neurotoxicity, reproductive issues and developmental issues.
Plastic Cutting Boards
Every time you slice vegetables on a plastic cutting board, something invisible is happening. Plastic cutting boards resulted in 1,114 microplastic particles on the carrots each time the board was used. Think about that for a moment. More than a thousand tiny plastic fragments from a single use.
A plastic cutting board could generate 15 milligrams of microplastics per cut, and around 50 grams a year, the equivalent of 10 plastic credit cards. One recent study called plastic cutting boards a “potentially significant source of microplastics in human food” and found that a polyethylene chopping board could shed between 7.4 and 50.7 grams of microplastics per person per year.
Evidence suggests that microplastics can be found in our blood, lungs, and even our placenta, and can be potentially hazardous towards our physical health, with a 2022 animal study in South Korea finding that microplastics could interfere with digestive, respiratory, endocrine, and even reproductive systems. The older and more scratched your board gets, the worse this problem becomes. Plastic boards released more microplastics as they wore down with increased usage.
Non-Stick Cookware with PFAS Coatings
Let’s be real about those beautiful non-stick pans that make cooking eggs so effortless. Seventy-nine percent of tested nonstick cooking pans and twenty percent of tested nonstick baking pans were coated with PTFE. Because of their widespread use and their persistence in the environment, PFAS are found in the blood of people and animals all over the world and are present at low levels in a variety of food products and in the environment.
Here’s the thing about these forever chemicals. A growing body of evidence indicates some PFAS contribute to liver disease, increased cholesterol, impaired response to vaccines, thyroid disease, asthma, lowered fertility, and high blood pressure in pregnant women. In one study, the concentration of PFSO in an acidic food with salt was 18.30 μg kg−1 and for PFOA 16.55 μg kg−1, and after being used ten times, concentrations reached 60.33 μg kg−1 and 54.21 μg kg−1.
Scratching nonstick cookware presents its own hazards, with studies finding that using damaged nonstick cookware can release millions of micro- and nanoplastic particles into your food. If you’re still using nonstick cookware that may contain PFAS, stop using it if the surface becomes scratched, flaking or worn down, as damage to the coating can increase the risk of PFAS and other chemicals leaching into food during cooking. Most experts now recommend stainless steel, cast iron, or ceramic alternatives for safer cooking.
Old Wooden Cutting Boards with Deep Grooves
Wooden cutting boards can be safer than plastic in many ways, but once they develop deep knife scars and grooves, they become problematic. Plastic boards had higher counts of aerobic mesophilic bacteria and Enterobacteriaceae, however, newer wooden boards also showed high bacterial counts. L. monocytogenes was detected in 3% of samples, and E. coli in 5%, with no significant differences between materials.
Bacteria from raw meat, seafood, or even just day-old vegetable scraps can linger in those cracks, and you could sanitize your plastic cutting board constantly, but even that won’t undo the fact that it’s holding onto germs in a way that other materials don’t. Interestingly, fresh wooden boards actually absorb bacteria into their fibers where they die, but heavily scarred and grooved boards lose this natural defense.
Research demonstrated wood treated with linseed or mineral oil significantly increased the recovery of bacteria from the wood surface for at least 1 hour after contamination. Once your wooden board looks more like a relief map than a flat surface, it’s time to replace it. Regular maintenance matters, but deep grooves that trap food particles cannot be properly cleaned, creating potential food safety hazards in your kitchen.
The kitchen is where we create nourishment for ourselves and our loved ones. These four items might seem harmless sitting in your drawers and cupboards, but the research tells a different story. From flame retardants in black plastic utensils to microplastics from cutting boards, PFAS chemicals in non-stick pans to bacteria harboring in scarred wood, these everyday tools could be silently compromising your health with every meal you prepare. The good news is that safer alternatives exist, from stainless steel utensils to cast iron cookware, fresh wooden boards to ceramic options. What’s sitting in your kitchen right now? Did any of these findings surprise you?
