Safe to eat? Frozen soup stored in plastic take out container

November 26, 2023 10:34 AM

My concern is the plastic chemicals in the soup container from a take-out restaurant leeching into the soup. The soup has been frozen in that container for 8 months. The bottom of the container has the plastic symbol (arrows in a circle) which the number 5 in the middle, and PP below. Thanks!!
posted by Jason and Laszlo to Food & Drink (5 answers total)

The container is polypropylene. Not much happens in a freezer. The risk for leaching and microplastics, by far, is if you heat the container with the soup in it. If you let the soup thaw a bit on the counter or fridge such that you can pop it out into a bowl before reheating, that will be where you do the greatest risk reduction.
posted by rockindata at 10:46 AM on November 26, 2023 [10 favorites]

If you heat it in a separate glass or ceramic container this will be possibly the lowest risk thing you do all week.
posted by aramaic at 11:03 AM on November 26, 2023 [12 favorites]

Yes, it's absolutely fine. If you're concerned about leaching, just don't heat up the plastic.
posted by hydra77 at 2:26 PM on November 26, 2023 [1 favorite]

Polypropylene is not vulnerable to any known solvent at room temperature (according to my 1990s Merck Index) which means foods won’t be able to penetrate into the body of the plastic to leach anything out of it.

The mold releasing compound for PP is usually anandamide, which is an endocannabinoid your body already makes. There was a story about someone's experiment with effects of cannabinoids on some organism which was messed up by anandamide traced to PP tubing, but the amounts were so tiny it’s almost inconceivable they would affect you.
posted by jamjam at 3:32 PM on November 26, 2023 [2 favorites]

For stuff frozen in plastic containers I'll put it in a hot water bath or run the hot tap on the container for a minute or so to get it to release into a glass/ceramic container for reheating. You should be just fine.
posted by Aleyn at 4:28 PM on November 26, 2023