alt Hacker NewsOne class of items not listed here, which I'd recently started to think might be less-than-optimal: pepper sold in jars with built-in, plastic, grinders.
I'd long since noted that as the jar emptied the grinders were increasingly ineffective. Thinking on why that might be ... I realised that this was because as you grind the pepper, you're also grinding plastic directly into your food.
There's surprisingly little discussion about this that I can find, though this 5 y.o. Stackexchange question addresses the concern:
<https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/103003/microplas...>
Seems to me that plastic grinders, whether disposable or sold as (apparently) durable products, are a class of products which simply shouldn't exist.
Searching, e.g., Walmart for "plastic grinders" turns up five listings presently, though it's not clear whether it's the body or the grinder itself which is plastic. In several cases it seems to be the latter.
<https://www.walmart.com/c/kp/plastic-grinders>
(Archive of current state: <https://archive.is/yIIX4>
Replies
Thanks, I hadn’t considered the plastic on the pepper grinder. Guess I’ll be looking for a new pepper grinder as I continue my pursuit of removing plastic and dangerous chemicals from the kitchen. So far the pans, tupperware, and cooking utensils have all been replaced.
While not food, another not so frequently talked about plastic exposure could be clothing dryer vents pushing materials from synthetic clothing into the air. It’s likely less of a problem than the rubber tires on our cars making their way into the air. But it was something that occurred to me while cleaning out the dryer vent this past weekend.
This was just posted today on r/BuyItForLife,
> After reading about micro plastics in the disposable salt and pepper grinders from the big box, stores broke down and bought these very nice all metal mechanism grinders.
https://www.reddit.com/r/BuyItForLife/comments/1liyril/after...
Kind of surprised there’s no mention of Fletchers’ Mill [0] here, they’re good quality mills made in Maine. The pepper mills use stainless steel while the salt mills use nylon (corrosion resistance), so you’d have to look elsewhere for salt.
Personally I just dump kosher salt into a salt cellar and call it a day but I am sure there are plastic-free salt mills out there somewhere.
The grinder itself is almost certainly always plastic in these. Even in refillable grinders, in the low-medium range the burr is often plastic
I use a mortar and pestle (both made of stone) and would highly recommend it!
Is the plastic you ingest this way significant though? I don't remember the details, but the Veritasium video on this subject suggested that the scraped teflon you ingest from pans is less significant than the plastic that leeches into food in products like microwave popcorn. I assume this has to do with the reaction between the substance being contained (popcorn oil, in this case) and the item containing it (plastic-lined paper).
If the plastic particles are large enough, I assume we pass them.
I am a huge fan of Unicorn Pepper Mills: https://www.unicornmills.org/ as a buy-it-for-life item that truly works better than alternatives. That said, they do have plastic bodies, but the grinder mechanism is entirely made from metals and ceramic.
I got a $7 ceramic pepper grinder from Ikea.
PlasticList is amazing and thank your raising these issues, it never crossed my mind and I use this everyday!
That linked StackExchange thread perfectly portrays why the site went down the drain.
>Maybe you'll ingest more microplastic on fish or proteins in higher food chain than grinders.
>If you drink tea you've got a lot more to worry about in terms of ingestion.
OK ... ?
>Your concern, although logically valid, is nearly impossible to regulate or even measure.
And yet, PlasticList is a thing.
>We're talking about amount that is, literally, microscopic.
Yeah Einstein, that's why they're called microplastics.
I am SO glad that place is extinct now.
We 100% know and are well aware that food items like cutting boards, plastic-ware, etc. are all sources of plastic we ingest.
We are doing it on purpose, eating plastic that is, the only question is why!
Peugeot—yes, they of the cars—make an excellent line of steel-based pepper grinders, and a great nutmeg mill as well. Along with hoop skirts and lawnmowers and much more, apparently, over the 200 years since the family started their first steel mill:
https://us.peugeot-saveurs.com/en_us/inspiration/history/
The car business sold to Stellantis, but the lineage’s kaleidoscope of other enterprises apparently continues.