Cooking & Packing
Safety question: Is honey in plastic jars safe?
By A reader
Jan 9, 2009 - 11:16:20 AM

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Recently from vistcost.com I have purchased a couple of jars of organic honey. One of the reasons I made the purchase is because the container looks like a glass jar, which I believe is safer than its plastic counterparts.

To my surprise, the container is actually plastic, which I assume is  polycarbonate plastic containing an plasticizer called bisphenol A.

The US Toxicology Program has agreed that bisphenol A may pose a health risk particularly to infants and young children. Use of plastic bottles or jars naturally causes a concern because a study has shown that exposed to boiling water, polycarbonate bottles release BPA 55 times faster.

Of course, honey processors do not have to raise the temperature of honey to 100 oC for the purpose of packaging. But honey needs to be warmed to certain temperature to transform the honey, which is in solid form at room temperature into liquid honey before being injected into plastic jars.

If the jar is indeed made of polycarbonate plastic, I am concerned that this filling process may increase the release of BPA from plastic jars to honey.

I am not certain how much BPA can be released during the process.