Melted plastic wrap in oven at high temp
Tonight I preheated my oven, forgetting that I had some dough proofing inside. The dough was sitting in a glassware bowl covered with glad cling wrap and the oven reached about 350F before I realized and took it out. The stretched wrap had a weird hole in the center almost like the plastic had vaporized. Around the sides of the bowl the plastic kind of baked on and got crusty.
Nothing seems to have dripped onto the rack or the inside of the oven and everything came off of the bowl after I washed it with cold water. The dough went in the trash, but is there anything I should do to the oven to make it safe to keep using? I’m worried about plastic particles stuck to the walls of my oven or something. Is the bowl safe to keep using?
Best Answer
It's doubtful the plastic vaporized. It probably just made a hole because it melted and stretched. I'm sure your oven is safe. Any tiny amount of plastic that might have melted and landed on a surface (which is doubtful) would burn and you will smell the burnt plastic. Next time you use your oven just preheat it to 500 for 30 minutes and if there is no smell you're good to go. If you're really worried about it then turn on the self-clean. I would clean the melted plastic off the bowl with a brillo pad.
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Quick Answer about "Melted plastic wrap in oven at high temp"
Any tiny amount of plastic that might have melted and landed on a surface (which is doubtful) would burn and you will smell the burnt plastic. Next time you use your oven just preheat it to 500 for 30 minutes and if there is no smell you're good to go. If you're really worried about it then turn on the self-clean.Is it safe to use oven after melted plastic?
The short answer is probably not. While the jury is still out on this one, some organizations do point out the potential dangers of fumes from burning plastics. The USDA points out that any food permeated by any toxic fumes should be thrown out.Does plastic wrap melt in oven?
To be frank, the plastic wrap is bound to melt in an oven when used alone without the protection of aluminum foil. The saran wrap is thinner than a plastic bag. Plastic generally cannot handle the high temperatures of the oven. Most of the cling films and wraps start to melt at 220F-250F.Is melted plastic wrap toxic?
Back on the other side of the wrap, the American Plastics Council cites a former FDA supervisory chemist, Dr. Charles Breder: "If you were to accidentally eat food containing melted plastic, you wouldn't suffer any harmful effects to your health, but your food probably wouldn't taste too appetizing."Is Saran Wrap toxic when heated?
And while we're on the subject, be sure to throw away single-use containers after they've been heated once. Reheating them may also cause chemicals in the plastic to leach into your food. Andrew Weil, M.D.Melted plastic in oven, is it toxic?
More answers regarding melted plastic wrap in oven at high temp
Answer 2
To determine whether the oven is safe, you should look into the material your plastic wrap is made of, with the most common alternatives being:
- PVC
- LDPE
- PVDC
For all of those, we're concerned with melting temperature and thermal degradation: it will have a drop risk only above the former, and a VOC (Volatile Organic Compound, which are the awfully smelling gases you feel when you burn plastic) chance once the latter kicks in.
That said, if the oven doesn't show any visible stain or coating after the incident it should only have had a very negligible exposure to any toxic compound: a thorough cleaning with a coarse sponge (but nothing hard enough to scratch your oven walls) should be more than enough to make the risk non-existant.
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Karolina Grabowska, Karolina Grabowska, Karolina Grabowska, Kenneth Gorzal Surillo