Wholefood writer Jude Blereau says “go glass and get real”.

I WAS watching a cooking show (Australian) on TV the other evening, only to see this beautiful piece of well-raised meat wrapped in plastic and then steamed. This practise is not uncommon in commercial cookery today and, indeed, is happening more and more. This article is not to rant about such behaviour, but to bring to the forefront of thought that as humans, we continue to adapt to technology without thought.

I have said before that one of the challenges for the 21st century will be to bring heart and soul to technology, and to find ways to adapt the many advances in ways that enhance, not detract, from our very beingness. Plastic would be one of those technologies and its use in food production has become pervasive.

The problem with plastic, as in most petrochemical products (especially pesticides) is the presence of xeno estrogens – fake or pretend estrogens that overstimulate the estrogen receptors and, in many cases, replace the body’s ability to uptake its own. The implications of this are enormous and lead to many problems – hormonal, impaired foetal development, and cancer are a just few examples in which xeno estrogens are considered to play a major role. You could absolutely say that they are not body compatible. We are, as a society, infatuated with speed and achieving an end result more quickly – food is no exception. The use of soft plastic wraps and plastic storage is almost endemic.

There is virtually no food today that is not touched by plastic. Let’s start with the butcher – all meat is covered in plastic as it sits in the cabinet; it is no longer wrapped in paper once purchased but in plastic and, most often, with the added bonus of a plastic tray. I recently asked an organic butcher could he please just put the meat in some paper… no, he had no butcher’s paper there at all, and truly the look on his face was as if I had asked could he organise a delivery to the moon . He could just not wrap his mind around the “absurdity ” of my request.

Meats are now rarely hung for aging, but rather packed in plastic for a “wet” aging, and most meat (including organic) is set on a plastic tray and wrapped in soft plastic wrap. About 80 per cent of all fruit and vegetables are packed in plastic. But the problem becomes more severe when foods are packed or produced in plastic that will undergo heat, including take home/take out soups and meals in plastic pouches or cups, and (becoming more common) the lining of tin cans. But even beyond this, the use of soft plastic wrap in food production is endemic. Pastry is rolled with plastic and to achieve a lovely thin pastry for tartlets, pastry is lined with soft plastic wrap and weighted before cooking.

Meat is wrapped in soft plastic wrap and cooked (steamed, roasted etc) in restaurants, and the example on TV was just how it is these days in the industry. It makes things easier and quicker. These are only a drop in the ocean of examples I could give you. The softer the plastic, the more transference of xeno estrogens, and even more so when heated. It must be obvious to you that heating – most notably by microwave – of foods in plastic containers or wrapped in soft plastic wrap is a problem of massive proportions, yet it is this type of food that is most common in day to day lives.

So what do you do? Resist wherever possible the use of soft plastic wrap. I prefer to not use it at all. I’m not always successful at that and sometimes use it for sealing, but I see this as a weakness on my part and seek to find other ways including tea towels, little “shower caps”, glass jars with lids etc. I can tell you that when I do use it, it is because I am stressed and tired; the lure of easy and fast is very seductive. But I never use it for heating.

Certainly my mother and grandmother survived amazingly well without it and their lives didn’t fall apart.

Containers for fridge and freezer storage? Some of the best on the market are Pyrex. They come in round and rectangle options, from tiny to large, and though they have a plastic lid, they are fabulous. Store/freeze in glass, thaw if required, then remove the lid and cook. We all are guilty of using plastic take out containers to freeze, me included, but if you can move towards Pyrex, all the better. In the pantry, I prefer to store in glass. I like to buy a lot of food from bulk bins (sooo much cheaper) and recycle the paper bags from shop to shop. If I don’t have glass jars to store these foods in at home, I do like to stack similar things (sea vegetables/legumes/sugars) in one large plastic container, but they are already in their paper or purchased packaging. It does help me organise and keep things together. I don’t buy something and then store it loose in its own plastic container. I’m not a fan of plastic storage systems. Wherever possible, store in glass.

Let’s talk the pointy end – heating. Please, never, ever have food or reheat food in plastic – any kind of plastic, thick or thin. If you eat out, this will be virtually impossible. If you MUST (and I would be dragged kicking and screaming) use a microwave, please do not use plastic based containers to do the heating, and please don’t put it in a bowl and cover with soft plastic wrap. Please don’t put that lovely potato in its plastic microwave cocoon. It’s just as quick to steam your vegies, honestly. I agree the potato is a long affair, but if you want real food that can actually support you, then that’s the way it is. If you need to re heat a grain, put it in a china bowl and put that in a saucepan. Fill with enough water to come half way up the side of the bowl and then cover the pot with the lid and gently steam – it really doesn’t take long. If you need to heat a stew, put in a small pot. If it is frozen, add small amount of water and heat very gently.

The drive to remove plastic shopping bags from our lives is picking up steam. I’m starting a new drive so come on board, see how you go and let me know. The thing that makes it hard is always the time issue. It is possible and doable, it just does take a bit of organising. The recipe for this month ? It’s to show you it doesn’t take long to cook a good dinner – proper fast food.