Glad® Press'n Seal® Plastic Food Wrap - 100 Square Foot Roll

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But what scientists like Hunt and Swan and others have come to realize is that chemicals like BPA and phthalates don't play by the rules. Many of their and other studies of endocrine disruptors have found serious health effects at levels as low as 2 micrograms per one kilogram of body weight — that's 25 times lower than the EPA's safe level ."We've been using an oversimplified mode of measurement," says Scott Belcher, Ph.D., associate professor of pharmacology and cell biophysics at the University of Cincinnati. With BPA and phthalates, there's nothing like the smoking-lung cancer connection, but there are lots of smoking guns. The research is still in its early days, and much of what we know comes from work with animals. Also, not all phthalates have been linked to health problems. But many prominent scientists believe these chemicals may cause a range of problems related to our hormones: Lower sperm counts and other reproductive abnormalities

Be extra cautious with infants: If you use commercial formula, buy it in powdered form, which comes in a foil-lined cardboard container and shouldn't have any BPA, says the FDA. Write the type of cake and use-by date on a large piece of aluminum foil. I write on the aluminum foil before wrapping the cake just in case the ink seeps through. It has before! In 1988, when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set a safe consumer limit for BPA — you could ingest 50 micrograms per one kilogram of body weight per day — it used the old-school tests. Typically, that meant dosing rodents with high levels of the chemical and looking for disease (or death), then reducing the amount of chemical until it had "no observed adverse effect." Usually, a fraction of that level is what's allowed in our food and consumer products. While this is terrific news, there's more you should understand. For one thing, we know we have these chemicals in our bodies, and they're getting there somehow. Indeed, nearly every American has BPA coursing through his or her veins, according to data gathered in 2003-04 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — and children have the highest levels of all. The FDA estimates that adult Americans consume, on average, a cumulative 11 micrograms of BPA per day through diet — mostly from the liners in canned foods, say several scientific groups. Is that level a lot? Is it safe? No one really knows yet, but "we're concerned about how much exposure there is to this chemical and possible health repercussions," says Anila Jacob, M.D., a physician and senior scientist for the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a nonprofit watchdog scientific organization.When it comes to keeping your food fresh and leftovers protected, it’s important to have the right tools for the job. Two popular options in the world of plastic wrap are Glad Press And Seal and Cling Wrap. Both have their merits, but which one reigns supreme? In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the pros and cons of each, helping you make the best choice for all your food storage needs. So, get ready to say goodbye to soggy sandwiches and hello to airtight solutions that will keep your food fresher for longer. Why these? In pretesting, low levels of BPA had turned up in the two containers — Rubbermaid Easy Find Lids and Rubbermaid Premier. One plastic wrap, Glad Press 'n Seal, had tested positive for low levels of both phthalates and BPA. (A fourth item, Glad Storage Gallon Zipper Bags, was found to contain low levels of BPA, but was eliminated from food testing since it's unlikely that anyone would use the bags for heating liquid foods like pasta sauce or gravy.) For a real-life test, we microwaved Old World Style Ragú Traditional Smooth Pasta Sauce and Heinz Home Style Gravy Savory Beef in the two Rubbermaid containers and in a glass bowl covered with Press'n Seal. As you're unlikely to heat up tomato sauce or gravy in a plastic bag, we eliminated the Glad Storage Zipper Bags from this part of the testing. The lab first evaluated the foods straight from the jars to ensure that there were no phthalates or BPA present in the sauces before they were transferred to the test containers. In addition to testing foods heated in brand-new containers, we used ones that we had put through 30 rounds of microwaving and cleaning in the dishwasher, to see if wear and tear made a difference. The NTP advice to consumers was hard to decode. "There was nothing in our report that should cause alarm...but at the same time, people should make their own decision about which precautions they want to take," says Michael Shelby, Ph.D., director of the NTP's Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction. "The science is just not definitive." The following items contained low levels of phthalates or PBA but the chemicals did not leach into food during microwave heating:

Until recently, researchers had no way to detect the small amounts that are at the heart of this controversy. But "now that we can measure these low levels, we see how incredibly potent these compounds are," says David O. Norris, Ph.D., an endocrinologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder. It's possible, say many researchers, that early exposure to chemicals like BPA is making more of us grow up to be chubby, infertile, or more prone to illness as kids and adults. Messing With Our Hormones But our highest exposure comes from our daily diet, reports the National Toxicology Program. Molecules of BPA can migrate from containers into food, especially, say experts, when the containers are heated and the foods are acidic (like tomatoes) or fatty (like gravy). That's why GH Institute used those two food types for its tests — plus, these items are commonly heated in a microwave. Just as a mom might prepare her family's dinner in her kitchen, GHRI scientists, working with chemists at an independent lab, heated samples of Old World Style Ragú Traditional Smooth Pasta Sauce and Heinz Home Style Gravy Savory Beef in the microwave in two different widely available storage containers and in glass bowls covered with a commonly used plastic wrap. Freeze for up to 3 months. For best taste and texture, don’t freeze cakes for longer than 3 months. You could stretch it to 4 or 5 months, but the sooner you serve it, the fresher it tastes.The ability to withstand heat is an important consideration when comparing Glad Press and Seal and Cling Wrap. Glad Press and Seal is specifically designed to be heat-resistant, allowing it to be safely used in the microwave and oven. The wrap can withstand temperatures of up to 375°F (190°C) without melting or releasing harmful chemicals. Cling Wrap, especially the PVC variant, may not be suitable for high-temperature applications and can pose a safety risk if used in the oven or microwave. For heat-resistant wrapping and cooking, Glad Press and Seal is the safer option. Suitability for Cooking Thawing cakes is easy. Transfer the wrapped cakes from the freezer to the refrigerator one day before decorating/serving. I usually take them out of the freezer container to thaw. The cakes take at least 8 hours to thaw completely in the refrigerator. Sometimes I forget and just let the cake(s) thaw at room temperature, but it’s better they thaw at a slower rate in the refrigerator. This new understanding turns the "dose makes the poison" logic on its head, suggesting that even tiny levels can cause damage if exposure happens at a particularly sensitive time during development, such as when a fetus's brain or sex organs are forming in the womb. "There are critical windows of vulnerability," says Maida Galvez, M.D., a pediatrician with the Mount Sinai Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit in New York City. "It can be a question of when in addition to how much." Or, as some scientists now put it, "the timing makes the poison," says Andrea Gore, Ph.D., who studies hormone disruptors at the University of Texas at Austin. Keeping wraps organized in the kitchen can help streamline meal preparation and storage processes. Both Glad Press and Seal and Cling Wrap offer solutions that can be easily organized. However, Glad Press and Seal can be particularly advantageous in terms of organization due to its versatility. Its ability to seal and cover various sizes and types of containers, as well as non-food items, allows for a more efficient and organized storage system. Cling Wrap, while it can also be stored neatly, may not provide the same level of versatility and organization as Glad Press and Seal. Thus, Glad Press and Seal can contribute to a more organized kitchen space. We shipped several samples of each item off to an independent lab, where they were shredded into bits, then analyzed to see if any detectable amounts of BPA and phthalates were present in the products. The good news: Twenty-seven of the products tested contained no phthalates or BPA. Three, however, did contain low levels of BPA: the containers (or bottom sections) of Rubbermaid Easy Find Lids, Rubbermaid Premier containers, and Glad Storage Zipper Bags; Glad Press'n Seal wrap had low levels of both phthalates and BPA. Next, the lab tested these four items with "food simulants" — chemicals designed to stand in for real food in a lab. (Our federal health agencies, like the FDA, allow the use of food simulants in testing.) Results: No detectable BPA or phthalates migrated from the products into the simulants.