Cooking with any plastic is a dubious enterprise, because heat encourages potentially harmful plastic compounds to migrate out of the polymers and potentially into the food. But, as Andrew Turner, a biochemist at the University of Plymouth recently told me, black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid.
In 2018, Turner published one of the earliest papers positing that black plastic products were likely regularly being made from recycled electronic waste. The clue was the plastic’s concerning levels of flame retardants. In some cases, the mix of chemicals matched the profile of those commonly found in computer and television housing, many of which are treated with flame retardants to prevent them from catching fire.
Yay for being overly cautious after the BPA thing and deciding to avoid plastic as much as possible and strictly avoiding it when dealing with high heat.
Though I still wonder about the chemicals used to treat/seal wooden utensils.
It is kinda funny coming back full circle, because as a kid I thought the wooden spoons we had were relics of the past and preferred the smooth plastic ones.
Now I prefer the wooden ones, stains, cracks, and all. Just limit how long you soak them for when doing dishes.
On that note, I’ve found that most dishes only need to soak for a minute or less before they are easier to clean. And if you rinse them before anything dries, you probably won’t even need to soak at all.