16/02/2025
Why we don't cook in plastic cups and tubs
In this age of mass production and shortcuts, cooking custard in plastic tubs and cups to make flan has become common.
But we at Man With a Flan believe that such practice poses a health hazard.
Some people may argue that cups and tubs made of Type 5 plastic are "microwave safe" / "microwaveable," but that's exactly our point, too. They are safe, ONLY for microwave ovens.
Microwave ovens, for which those cups and tubs were made, use particle radiation to heat water molecules in food. Type 5 plastics are safe for this because they don't have water molecules in them and don't melt quickly. The radiation just passes through these plastics.
Cooking flans, however, is a different case as this is usually done in traditional ovens or steamers. Traditional ovens and steamers apply heat to everything -- from plastic, to caramel, to flan.
Baking or steaming flans in plastic may cause plastic to melt, or some chemicals in plastic to leach into the flan. While reheating food in a microwave oven needs only a few minutes, cooking flan takes time -- a range of just 30 minutes to 1 full hour, depending on the recipe. We doubt that Type 5 plastics can withstand sustained heat for that long. It can either melt or leach.
Melted plastic is easy to see. Leached plastic chemicals, however, are invisible to the naked eye but are equally dangerous.
So why don't we cook flans in plastic and use the microwave oven instead?
First, we believe that doing so changes the cooking time. Microwave ovens cook at a faster rate. Flan makers have different recipes, but the cooking time is constant at the mentioned range of 30 minutes to 1 hour. Changing this could alter the flan's texture.
Second, microwave ovens have very limited space.
Third, operating a microwave oven quickly pulls in too much electricity. Like a jolt.
Why not use plastic cups/tubs in a steamer and just shorten the cooking time so they won't melt?
As we previously mentioned, steamers apply heat to everything -- even plastic.
Cutting the cooking time in a steamer could prevent plastic from melting or leaching, but will also undercook the flan.
If your flan is runny, watery, or very easy to break, it is probably undercooked.
Undercooking itself poses another hazard. Eggs, the primary ingredient of flan, need to be cooked well to destroy remnants of harmful bacteria like salmonella.
Current technologies may allow us to make many flans faster but for now, traditional methods win in keeping flans safe. That's what your Man With a Flan believes.
Flans are love. No shortcuts.
