Food grade plastic is any plastic that has been approved for direct contact with food. It won’t leach harmful chemicals into what you eat or drink when used within its intended conditions, such as specific temperature ranges and food types. You can identify it by looking for recycling codes, specific symbols, or manufacturer labels on the container.
That said, “food grade” doesn’t mean a plastic is safe under every possible condition. The approval depends on how the plastic is used, what food it touches, how hot it gets, and how long contact lasts.
How Plastic Gets Approved for Food Contact
In the United States, the FDA regulates any substance intended for use in manufacturing, packing, packaging, transporting, or holding food. These are called food contact substances, and manufacturers must submit scientific evidence showing the material is safe for its intended use before it can reach the market.
The level of testing required depends on how much of the substance could potentially migrate into food. At extremely low exposure levels (below 0.5 parts per billion in the diet), no safety studies are needed. As potential exposure increases, the FDA requires progressively more rigorous testing, from genetic toxicity tests at moderate levels to full subchronic toxicity studies in multiple animal species at higher exposure levels. The threshold the FDA considers negligible for contaminant migration is 0.5 ppb, which translates to roughly 1.5 micrograms per person per day.
The European Union uses a similar framework, and both systems rely on the same core principle: the plastic must not transfer harmful substances to food under normal or foreseeable use conditions.
Food Grade vs. Food Safe
These two terms sound interchangeable, but they have a meaningful technical difference. A food grade material is one that’s safe for direct contact with food products. A food safe material goes further: it can withstand the actual environment it’s used in, including repeated cleaning, sanitizing, temperature exposure, and contact with cleaning chemicals, all without losing its integrity or creating a safety hazard.
A plastic cutting board might be food grade, but if it develops deep scratches that harbor bacteria and can’t be properly sanitized, it’s no longer food safe in practice. Food grade is about the material itself. Food safe is about how that material performs over time in real conditions.
Which Plastics Are Food Grade
The recycling number stamped on a plastic container (the number inside the triangle of arrows) tells you what type of resin it’s made from. Several are commonly used for food contact:
- Code 1 (PET or PETE): The most common food-contact plastic. Used for water bottles, soda bottles, and prepared food containers. Lightweight, clear, and widely recycled.
- Code 2 (HDPE): A sturdy, non-transparent plastic found in milk jugs, juice containers, cutting boards, and some food storage containers.
- Code 4 (LDPE): A soft, flexible plastic used for squeeze bottles, bread bags, and plastic wrap.
- Code 5 (PP or polypropylene): The go-to for containers that need to handle heat. Found in yogurt cups, deli containers, straws, and microwave-safe food containers. It tolerates temperatures from roughly -4°F up to about 266°F, making it suitable for reheating food and storing meals in the fridge or freezer.
Codes 3 (PVC), 6 (polystyrene), and 7 (a catch-all category) are less commonly approved for food contact, and some carry concerns about chemical migration. Code 7 in particular can include polycarbonate plastics that contain BPA, though many newer Code 7 plastics are BPA-free.
The recycling code alone doesn’t guarantee a specific container is food grade. It identifies the resin type, but the container still needs to have been manufactured and treated for food contact. Look for additional labeling to confirm.
How to Identify Food Grade Containers
The most universal indicator is the glass and fork symbol: a simple icon showing a wine glass next to a fork. This symbol is recognized across the EU, North America, and Asia, and it means the material has been approved for contact with food. You’ll find it stamped on containers, kitchen utensils, and even food-handling gloves.
For dishwasher safety, look for a separate symbol showing water droplets or diagonal lines hitting a plate or glass. If those lines only appear on the upper portion of the icon, the item is top-rack only. If the lines cover the full image, either rack is fine. Plastics should only go in the dishwasher if they carry this symbol, and placing them on the top rack (farther from the heating element) is the safest default.
What Makes Food Grade Plastic Leach
Even approved food grade plastics can release trace chemicals under certain conditions. Three factors accelerate this process: heat, acidity, and time. Research on chemical migration from plastic containers found that higher temperatures, lower pH (more acidic foods), and longer contact time all increased the amount of substances leaching into food. The relationship between these three factors was statistically significant, with acidity showing the strongest effect.
In practical terms, this means storing tomato sauce or citrus-based foods in plastic for extended periods, or repeatedly microwaving the same container, pushes the material harder than storing dry crackers at room temperature. The same container can behave very differently depending on what’s inside it and how it’s used.
To minimize migration, avoid heating food in containers not specifically marked as microwave safe. Don’t use containers that are visibly scratched, warped, or discolored. And for long-term storage of acidic foods, glass or stainless steel is a better choice.
The BPA Question
BPA (bisphenol A) has been one of the most scrutinized chemicals in food packaging. It’s used in some polycarbonate plastics and was historically found in the epoxy linings of canned goods. The FDA’s current position, based on ongoing safety reviews, is that BPA is safe at the levels currently found in food packaging.
That said, the FDA has amended its regulations to remove approval for BPA-based materials in baby bottles, sippy cups, and infant formula packaging. These changes were officially based on industry abandonment of those uses rather than a safety finding, but they reflect the practical reality that manufacturers moved away from BPA in children’s products due to consumer demand. Many brands now label containers “BPA-free,” which typically means they’ve substituted a different plasticizer.
Recycled Plastic in Food Packaging
Recycled plastic can be used for food packaging, but it faces extra scrutiny. The FDA’s primary concerns are that contaminants picked up during a product’s first life could carry over into the recycled material, that non-food-grade plastic could get mixed into the recycling stream, and that additives in the recycled plastic might not meet food-contact standards.
Manufacturers must demonstrate that their recycling process removes contaminants to negligible levels, generally below that 0.5 ppb migration threshold. This typically involves surrogate contaminant testing, where the recycler intentionally spikes plastic with known contaminants and then proves the cleaning process removes them effectively.
One notable exception: PET plastic (Code 1) that’s been through a tertiary recycling process, where the plastic is broken down to its chemical building blocks and rebuilt, is now considered inherently pure enough that the FDA no longer requires individual testing for each recycling facility. This is why you increasingly see “made from recycled content” labels on water bottles and food containers made from PET.