Non-Plastic Food Storage?

[theanimal]

I was recently disturbed to discover that the extent of plasticizers in our food (like phthalates) is far greater than I previously thought. It’s not only present in things that are in plastic containers, but also foods within cans lined with plastic, those wrapped in paper with plastic components and foods that were contaminated during processing among other things.



https://www.consumerreports.org/health/ ... 358224781/

This leaves me wondering how others go about minimizing their use of plastic in the home when it comes to food storage.

The standard advice is to avoid plastic Tupperware, microwaving foods in plastic containers, and plastic wrap. Things that aren’t mentioned but I imagine fall in line are eliminating the use of freezer paper as well as Ziploc bags.

The easiest way to do this is to substitute the above for glass Tupperware, silicone bags, aluminum foil, glass jars and steel containers.

How do you store your food? Have you found alternative methods beyond those listed above?

[theanimal]

I wanted to keep the OP broad, but I am also interested in the following.

The above substitutes still end up leaving some things unaccounted for in my mind, like fish and meat. I can go out and get a caribou or some salmon, some of the highest quality meat there is, but still introduce phthalates if I wrap it in freezer paper and store it in my freezer.

If I want to freeze meat what are my alternatives to freezer paper?

I understand I could can some, but I don’t want to can something like an entire moose or 50 fish every summer. There’s drying as well, but does anyone know of alternatives for freezing? I’ve heard of beeswax paper, but I’m not sure how durable that is and if it would withstand a few months in a freezer. Freezing meat is more of a modern phenomenon, I’m not sure what the “traditional” way to wrap it before freezing would be before the widespread development and use of plastics.

[jacob]

Some important things went unstated in the infograph (kinda how most climate impact infographics conveniently leaves out the [by far] predominant impact of having children):

Specifically, if you eat low on the food chain (mostly plants), then bio-concentration of pollutants in the food chain is a much smaller concern. Also, if you cook from dry staples, you can ignore the issues with processed foods touching plastic as part of the process.

This leaves storage.

As such, we use glass mason jars for canning, ziplocs (which are BPA free) for freezing, and plastic (Rubbermaid "Easy Find"(*), also BPA free) for the fridge.

(*) Actually, this is a good example of one of my pennywise/hassle foolish choices. For years, we had a mishmash of various storage containers, always having to hunt the cache for a particular lid for a particular container. About $40 eventually solved this so now everything fits everything. We have an assortment of these https://www.amazon.com/Rubbermaid-Stora ... B00COK3FD8 ... I suggest sticking with the biggest lids of different depths. The medium and small sizes aren't all that useful.

I'll note that mason jars, being designed for the minimally viable canning specs, aren't necessarily all that durable either compared to plastic.

[Slevin]

I wanted to keep the OP broad, but I am also interested in the following.

The above substitutes still end up leaving some things unaccounted for in my mind, like fish and meat. I can go out and get a caribou or some salmon, some of the highest quality meat there is, but still introduce phthalates if I wrap it in freezer paper and store it in my freezer.

If I want to freeze meat what are my alternatives to freezer paper?

I understand I could can some, but I don’t want to can something like an entire moose or 50 fish every summer. There’s drying as well, but does anyone know of alternatives for freezing? I’ve heard of beeswax paper, but I’m not sure how durable that is and if it would withstand a few months in a freezer. Freezing meat is more of a modern phenomenon, I’m not sure what the “traditional” way to wrap it before freezing would be before the widespread development and use of plastics.

I freeze tons of stuff in 1 qt wide mouth ball jars. You do have to introduce plastic into the system for stacking / etc, but at least it isn’t touching the food.

Biggest downside is ofc breakage and weight: Avoid this as much as possible by letting things cool before freezing, and not filling the jars past too full (expanding liquids will shatter the jars. Also use plastic bins or shelving to create levels for stacking the jars in. Ball jars are dirt cheap (< $1 per) even here in CA, but I have no idea how that translates to Alaska prices.

Some breakage is inevitable over a long timespan of reuse and a PITA, but things that break in the freezer generally break frozen together, to spillage / cleanup is minimal.

[Ego]

Back in the day, meat from the butcher was wrapped in waxed butcher paper. You could probably wrap it in the butcher paper then store it in the plastic bags to avoid making a mess in the freezer.

[theanimal]

Some important things went unstated in the infograph…

Yeah, they mentioned that in the article where those came from, linked below the infographic.

Eating lower on the food chain and from staples can result in less plastics due to accumulation, but they are still just as susceptible to environmental factors like contaminated water and soil, as well as plastic mulch. The article contains a list of 75 foods that they measured for total phthalates, also listing how each product is stored/sold.

While the list resembles the standard American diet more than what people typically eat here, the numbers aren’t close to zero, suggesting that even slightly less processed stuff is still contaminated. For example, I would presume that the dry goods like beans, lentils and rice that many buy here comes in plastic bags, then there are some that store these in plastic 5 gallon buckets. From my understanding, both those would be susceptible to introducing plasticizers into your food. Maybe not as much as other factors, but it doesn’t appear to be zero.

Considering these chemicals accumulate in the bloodstream, it seems like it’s best to minimize them as much as possible.

ETA: I made a mistake. The online article doesn’t have anything about eating lower on the food chain. I read the physical copy of the magazine which has an insert talking about limiting high fat foods and eating more whole fruits and vegetables.

[theanimal]

Back in the day, meat from the butcher was wrapped in waxed butcher paper. You could probably wrap it in the butcher paper then store it in the plastic bags to avoid making a mess in the freezer.

Unfortunately, it looks like most butcher wrap today is sold with a “non-stick” lining, which I would imagine is composed of plastics.

[Ego]

The old school stuff was just waxed paper, which still exists.

[jennypenny]

Use eco-friendly parchment paper. If you're ok with stuff that says BPA-free etc, try laminated cotton.

[loutfard]

Bees wax cloth for anything cold except meat or fish. Cheap, eco, easy to diy.

Two friends use this. They both love it. The one is a space engineer buying expensive eco schmeco stuff. The other is living on 1 JAFI with a family of 5. He made his own using wax from his own bees and recycled cotton.

[Western Red Cedar]

We use pyrex tupperware for most of our leftovers. They have plastic lids, but we don't ever microwave those and they don't need to touch the food. We use mason jars or Adams peanut butter jars (wide mouths) for kimchi or other pickling projects.

@theanimal- I'm guessing you know more about processing and storing meat than most here. Is smoking or drying the meat realistic at the quantities you are considering?

[theanimal]

@theanimal- I'm guessing you know more about processing and storing meat than most here. Is smoking or drying the meat realistic at the quantities you are considering?

It's possible, it's the traditional way in Alaska and elsewhere for that matter. Freezers and plastic became widely used about the same time, so there really wasn't any other options besides the methods you mention and things like salting and canning. It definitely takes more work, especially when it comes to something like a moose, but I suppose that's the tradeoff. Right now, it seems like the tradeoff is convenience for health.

[theanimal]

Nate Hagens had Jane Munck on his podcast recently. She studies environmental toxicology and is a director at the Food Packaging Forum Foundation. They talked about much of the above and more related to the dangers of plastic and food.

Here's a link to the episode and transcript

A few things that stood out to me that haven't been addressed elsewhere in this thread:
- The migration of particles from polysterene (styrofoam) cups and containers is extremely high, especially so when they are in contact with hot liquids and foods.
- Long storage times are another mechanism of particle transfer. She says that this is also applicable to non-plastic containers like paper and plastic which can still transfer chemicals over longer time periods (>6 months). For long term storage, she recommends ceramic, stainless steel or glass.
-Some here have noted the association with fat foods but the migration of plastics also occurs with acidic foods and alcohol. Jane notes that the worst combination would be high fat content, high acidity and hot foodstuff. That would really max out migration of plastics from any container or vessel.

[guitarplayer]

A straightforward way to reduce intake of plastics is also to eat less.

ETA: Another tangent around the topic: quick research shows people talking about donating blood being a way to reduce concentration of harmful chemicals in blood stream. Makes sense to me, I also happen to have some over 15 litres donated but stopped a while back. Am going to have a chat with DW to resume together as this seems homeotelic enough.

[guitarplayer]

I had pulled out an old thread on blood donation and linked to this thread over there.

ETA: then @mathiverse drew my attention to the fact that this has all been said in yet another thread, by the very @mathiverse and @theanimal, sorry folks.

[mathiverse]

No need to apologize. It can be hard to find the most suited thread. I think having all these three linked is great for future readers since it's all related.

[thef0x]

Adding a different type of container: stainless steel.

I found out about these house-sitting for a crunchy family in Hawaii last year.

The obvious major downside is you cannot see inside of the vessel and, secondarily, you cannot pop it into the microwave if you have/use one. The upsides are that they are strong / can be dropped / are transportable in a bag without worry, they're very light, and no plastics.

I enjoyed them enough to buy 8 largeish containers. They were fairly expensive at ~$11/each -- order on aliexpress.

I'm hoping this is a lifetime solution.

Not the best photo b/c I was focusing on the food here but you can get a sense. The lids are ribbed for strength with a channel for a rubber gasket to ensure a waterproof seal -- if you store hot food the seal is very tight, like a bell jar lid, and can actually take a lot of force to open.

I purchased 3x1L, 2x1.6L, 2x 2.2L



Here is a photo from the aliexpress listing but strangely it shows 3 clasps(wc) whereas the largest ones have 4.

The circular shape is sturdy while light and, bearing no sharp corners, it's fast to clean.

[Western Red Cedar]

Adding a different type of container: stainless steel.

Nice! I remember seeing these all over India. I think they were called dabbas.

When I was a desk jockey I often needed to reheat my food, but stainless steel seems like a great option to add to the plastic-free repertoire.

[theanimal]

I came across stainless steel in my earlier searches. There's a few different options on Amazon in varying sizes. The largest I've been able to find is this one, which is just over 1 gallon. Some of the others have a clear strip on the side (I don't remember if it's glass or plastic. I think the latter.) so that you can see the interior contents. This one has a clear top.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Q4SLL5H/

[conwy]

I switched to glass to avoid BPAs, but now that I'm looking into a frugal-minimalist-nomad lifestyle, I'm probably going to go for something lighter-weight such as microwaveable stainless steel.

Thinking of getting one of these:
https://cuitisan.hk/collections/all/pro ... gle-1400ml
https://blackblum.com/collections/meal- ... box-set-x3
https://smashproducts.com/products/snack-box-430ml-onyx