There I was slowly walking through the kitchen section of the store one day, stalking the shelves to see if there were any new and fun items I could take home to my kitchen lair to play with…. and there it was – a pretty shiny new RED mixing bowl! I had to touch it, pick it up and examine it! It was just the right size – not too big and not too small. And lighter weight than my heavier glass mixing bowl. Shiny, smooth and, it was RED – my very favorite color too! It was speaking to me “Take me home with you! I will make you so happy! We will make delicious and beautiful foods together for your family!” And, so I had to take the pretty little red mixing bowl home to be my new best friend in the kitchen.
Fast forward a couple of years….
The ‘oh so pretty little mixing bowl’ has become my haggard enemy in my kitchen full of faithful and useful tools, bowls, appliances, gadgets and utensils. When I look at it, I am disgusted…. both with the item itself and with myself for being a sucker in buying it. Over the years, I have bought many vintage kitchen items at flea markets and antique shops because I love the older utensils with RED wooden handles and even after many years, they are still looking good and serving their purpose fully. I also have several items that have been passed down to me from both sides of our families that have faithfully served for generations and are still in good shape and useful as well as suppling endearing memories each time I use them…. The odd-shaped ladle my mother-in-law used to serve her dumplings at the family get-togethers and the well-worn wooden-handled knife my Granny used to cut her dumplings is on display in my own kitchen and only used when I fix her well-known and highly-revered dumpling recipe. But, alas, it was not to be so for the once pretty little mixing bowl. It is now faded, stained and ugly…. And I might be able to tolerate the ugliness if it were still at least useful…. but now it even has a crack in the bottom that will leak liquids…. so I only use it for thick, more dry mixtures now as I contemplate sending to the kitchen bowl graveyard soon…… also known as the TRASH.
This bowl is made of a fairly new material called melamine which recently hit the market in the kitchen arena of bowls, plates and mugs, etc. What exactly is melamine?
Although similar to plastic, Melamine is not the same thing as plastic. Melamine is a white crystalline chemical used in the manufacturing process of plastics, paper and paperboard, adhesives and industrial coatings. When melamine is combined with formaldehyde it, becomes melamine resin, which in the end is a type of “plastic” and gives the end product a harder, more durable feel than standard plastic and can be molded to create dishes, cups, and other tableware when heated. On the nasty side, it has been used in other countries as a chemical fertilizer and was also discovered in tainted baby food in China that lead to the deaths of 6 babies and sickened 300,000 more in 2008. Melamine dishes were popular in the 1950s and 60s when it was first introduced, but when Corelle arrived on the scene in the early 1970s, Melamine faded into the background and has only recently made comeback in stores everywhere.
Are there any health concerns with using Melamine?
According to the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) melamine manufactured-dishes have been deemed safe for use with food under certain guidelines. Safety tests were conducted by The Taiwan Consumers’ Foundation of tableware made in China. Test results revealed that during the manufacturing process, a small amount of the melamine compound residue could remain in the finished product and, under certain conditions, could actually seep into foods that come into contact with it. Reportedly, under normal usage, the amount of melamine that might seep into foods from the dish to the food is low enough not to cause any health risks. Extra caution should be taken when using the dishes in the microwave or when used with more highly acidic foods as this will cause more leaching of the chemical in other foods served with it. And using it for infants is not recommended due to the fact that they are more highly susceptible to melamine poisoning so should be avoided. Reports of melamine poisoning are rare, it can lead to kidney diseases such as kidney stones and kidney failure.
And I will also add – beware using it in the microwave (subject for another article on another day! ) as it gets extremely HOT!…which will not only burn your hand but also cause more leaching of the chemical into your food as well.
I confess to being sucked in more than once by these pretty products as I also have a handful of plates and bowls made of the same offending material. To be fair, I am not basing my opinion of this product on this one measly bowl. I have actually already thrown at least one other into the trash already. The plates and bowls are also fading and ugly compared to the pretty bright, shiny and smooth items they once were when I plucked them from the store shelf and brought them home. They too, will soon follow the parade of melamine products I have bought to the trash heap.
I usually like to know what I am getting and research most products before purchasing especially regarding what they are made of looking for any toxic materials. Our world is full of chemicals today and our bodies are far better off without them. I am also moving away from plastics and replacing them as I move forward. But that is a subject for another day. I will not be spending any more money on melamine products. Lesson learned – research before you buy.
Reference – China dairy products found tainted with melamine – BBC News
Happy, HEALTHY cooking!
Shawn Tucker
