I have seen this question come up several times with the end result being some sort of argument about what is " food safe" and what is not. I received this reply from the Food and Drug Admin. today. Hope it clears up some questions on this topic, I know it did for me.


Dear Lisa Storksen, food safe means that the item will not contaminate the food when used. It will not leach anything into the food that will cause harm.


Jeannine Ertter
Consumer Affairs Specialist
Communication and Coordination Branch
Division of Education and Communication
Office of Food Defense, Communication,
Education and Response
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
This communication is consistent with 21 CFR 10.85 (k) and constitutes an informal communication that represents my best judgment at this time but does not constitute an advisory opinion, does not necessarily represent the formal position of FDA, and does not bind or otherwise obligate or commit the agency to the views expressed.

Now we can debate " leaching" lol

With the amount of chemicals floating around, and weird stuff being added to the products we buy, I don't think anything is food safe anymore, not even organic foods.
Organic fields pick up junk from non organic fields from the wind or breezes. "Stuff" leaches into our foods and household products all the time.

Most of the everyday cleaners we use in the house cause high levels of toxins to build up, but we use them anyway cause we want a sparkly clean house. Even most of the so called green cleaners you see on the shelves are not very "green".

We have govt acceptable levels of this and that chemical or hormone in our food and drink. Many of our foods are Genetically modified, but most consumers don't know that, because the govt doesn't think its necessary for us to see products we buy, labeled GM or non GM.

There's the big push to switch from plastic bags to reusable shopping bags to help stop so much plastic going into the landfills.
Now theres govt warnings about reusable shopping bags causing food poisoning from cross contamination. Our govt website, at least mine, tells me my reusable bags have to be washed in the washer with bleach and soap, or turned inside out and hand scrubbed with bleach and soap regularly.
There's one more leaching problem, bleach.. We use it to clean or disinfect, it goes down the drain and ends up contaminating or leaching into the waterways

And that my dear, is my take on leaching!