Thyroid Health – Is Tupperware BPA Free and Safe to Use?

BY KIM, ON SEPTEMBER 24TH, 2012

Thyroid health is a fragile thing. So many environmental triggers can set off a cascade of symptoms that deplete your quality of life.

Food storage containers can be one of these triggers.

Why? Because of BPAs.

What is a BPA?

If you use plastic containers for food storage or drink from a plastic water bottle, you want to know about BPAs. It is the most widely used component in food packaging, even in canned foods.

Bisphenol A, commonly abbreviated as BPA, is an organic compound with two phenol functional groups. Bisphenol A is used primarily to make plastics, and products containing bisphenol A-based plastics have been in commerce for more than 50 years. It is a key monomer in production of epoxy resins and in the most common form of polycarbonate plastic.

Concerns about the use of bisphenol A in consumer products started being regularly reported in the news media in 2008. These “concerns” include how BPA messes with thyroid hormone and other receptors in our body depleting our health by confusing our natural, streamlined biology from working properly.

Think about this… BPA is now classified as a food additive (!),a category that requires a cumbersome and time-consuming process to make regulatory changes. Dr. Sharfstein said he hoped its status could be changed to “food contact substance,” which would give the F.D.A. more regulatory power and let it act more quickly if it needed to do so.

Too read more, find indepth research by Dr. Mercola.

“Flexible packaging” — the pouches and films your food comes in — is big money, representing a $21.3 billion per year industry in the United States that is growing by 3.5 percent annually.

And BPA is one of the biggest players in the wrapping industry.

In 2009, more than 6 billion pounds of BPA was made, representing nearly $7 billion in sales. US companies that make BPA are Bayer Material Science, Dow Chemical Company, SABIC Innovative Plastics (formerly GE Plastics), Hexion Specialty Chemicals, and Sunoco Chemicals.

There’s no real incentive for them to change because they’re making a chunk of change. But, to keep your thyroid health growing in a positive direction, you have to take care of yourself.

SO, HOW ABOUT TUPPERWARE?

Boy, we all know Tupperware! They are creative, innovative and crafty. I applaud them.

And, they report that they have been, since March 2010, BPA-free! I applaud them even more!

Tupperware follows the recommendations and guidelines of governmental regulatory agencies regarding materials that may be used in our high quality products. The Company also acknowledges the attitudes of consumers regarding products containing BPA. In its continuous search for the best materials for use in its products, Tupperware has found other materials with improved performance characteristics that have been approved by regulators to be BPA free to replace polycarbonate. As of March 2010, items sold by Tupperware US & CA are BPA free. See the notice at Tupperware here.

Of course, this means that all the Tupperware you have “before” 2010 products are NOT BPA free. 

STILL NOW SURE?

Use glass. Pyrex, Anchor Hocking, or any glass container is fine. Glass does not “leach” chemicals into your food or liquids.

DO NOT MICROWAVE IN ANY KIND OF PLASTIC, INCLUDING TUPPERWARE

No matter what their products say about being “microwave safe”, and this goes for anything plastic, DO NOT MICROWAVE FOOD IN IT. PERIOD!