Polypropylene is considered safe for food contact—even in the microwave—by the FDA, which allows companies to use it for packaging things like baby food. Boland disagrees: “I don’t believe that there are microwave-safe plastics.” Trasand and Enck agree that while independent studies should continue testing how much plastic is being released from food packaging, there is already enough evidence to show that “microwave-safe plastic” isn’t really safe. “I think the FDA needs to tell companies that they can no longer say any plastic is microwavable,” says Enck.
This would, essentially, upend huge portions of the food industry. There’s so many things that are done under the assumption that plastic is microwave safe that, if we change things now, it might actually cause some businesses to collapse.
Do it.