Food safety?

[krebscout]

You know those paper and plastic absorbent pads they pack under fresh meat?

...if someone were to accidentally cook that in the slow cooker with the meat, would they poison their family by still eating it? It's obviously safe enough to package with the food, but I don't know about heat.

[Marduk]

It is a semi-permeable plastic with a cotton core, designed to absorb blood and other fluids.

As long as the plastic is relatively intact, and not melted into the food somehow, I'd say it is safe to eat the food (not the pad.)

[NerdGirl]

I would eat it. When I first read what you wrote, my immediate concern was the germs, not the plastic chemicals getting into stuff, but then I realized that if the meat was cooked, the meat juice sitting in the plastic would be too.

[krebscout]

Thanks guys!

We did eat it. If we get cancer in fifty years, I'm blaming all of you.

[NerdGirl]

Well, I'm hoping to be an oncologist by then (at least at the moment), so maybe I'll be able to help you all with that.