The Magazine/ IndyLife KTPCHEN SINK DRAMA

Our homes are teeming with plastic most of us use it to cook and store food every day. But should we be thinking more about the potential health risks, asks Katie Rosseinsky

- Katie Rosseinsky

Last night, I sliced up vegetables on a plastic chopping board. I prodded them with a black plastic spatula as they heated up in the non-stick pan. Later, I put some leftovers in a transparent plastic tub. All pretty normal, even banal, actions for a quiet evening, or so you'd think. But what if this bang-average evening routine is in fact slowly wrecking my health?

Over the last few months, there has been a steady bombardment of news stories and scientific research yelling about the potential dangers of the humble plastic products lurking in our kitchens. The utensils you’re using to stir your food as it warms up? They might be leaching carcinogens into your pasta sauce. Thinking of heating that same pasta sauce in a plastic container in the microwave for your lunch? Think again. Apparently doctors are warning of the potential dementia risk associated with doing just that (I suddenly feel a lot less smug about my batch-cooking habit). And then there are the scary “forever chemicals” that might be hanging out in your old, scratched non-stick pan.

It’s all pretty alarming stuff. And if this is only serving to put you off home cooking, apologies in advance – plastic takeaway containers are another potential villain. Back in February, a study found that eating from them frequently might increase the risk of congestive heart failure by 13 per cent.

So after having a brief existential meltdown about how our kitchens might be full of invisible saboteurs, what is the best course of action? Should we be rounding up all our black utensils and chucking them out, environment be damned? Should we retreat to the forest to adopt an entirely wood-based existence? Is there a realistic way we can try to mitigate the risks, bearing in mind that it’s nearly impossible to avoid them completely?