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Every single restaurant that I ever worked in stored and microwaved food in plastic containers. So if you ever eat out, you have eaten food that was in contact with plastic. It doesn't violate any health regulations.
We use empty cottage cheese/sour cream/yogurt containers and such as recycled food storage. We just use tape on the top to label the contents. Some of our plastic containers have been re-used dozens of times. No, you can't cook in them. The only requirement is for them to survive the dishwasher. Generally the clear plastic ones won't.
Ah, my separated at birth sister reappears! I rarely use anything other than plastic for storage, including plastic wrap, plastic containers, baggies, and even (oh, the horrors) leftover takeout left in Styrofoam.
I admit, I never reheat in Styrofoam and rarely in plastic (though I do defrost in plastic.
ok, little sister, I agree; no styrofoam reheating, but for storage, what is cheaper and easier than using plastic containers?
So does my daughter. When it's her turn to do the dishes, she has tantrums and throws all those red plastic lids on the floor.
The bummer is that if you use them to store anything made with oil or butter, the greasy film comes off much better in the dishwasher than with handwashing, at least, for me. That alone makes me favor glass and ceramic storage, which comes clean so much more quickly.
Location: Montreal -> CT -> MA -> Montreal -> Ottawa
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After years of hating that they get discolored (from sauce), that some get deformed in the dishwasher (if I forgot to put them in the top rack) or in the microwave (because, heck, I don't care if a chemical leeches into the food; I've got worse problems), I tossed all of my plastic and bought glass. I LOVE THE GLASS ONES!! They come with lids. They're in a bunch of different sizes. They go in the fridge, the freezer, the dishwasher, the microwave (not the lid, I guess), even the oven (definitely not the lid, of course).
I store some things in plastic containers and we use them as to go containers for leftovers either at family members houses when we are receiving left overs or at our house when we are giving out leftovers, but, I don't reheat leftovers in plastic containers.
I also for the most part use glass dishes with covers to store leftovers at my house.
I use Pyrex containers with plastic lids. Rectangular containers stack and fit into the fridge and freezer.
Sometimes I store things in plastic but not if it's acidic, like a tomato based dish. I love the Pyrex because you can nuke it to thaw it quickly. I don't nuke in plastic.
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