Teflex

[Bananna]

I'm thinking about buying a dehydrator, but my hesitation is the teflex sheets...which I assume are made from teflon...which is a known carcinogen.

How does this stack up in your minds?

Thanks!

[spicyfull]

There are other things to use, wax paper, cookie sheet. I use sicilone and I don't worry about it. Someone will drop by and give you other ideas.

[Bananna]

Silicone? I've never heard of silicone sheets, do you use an Excalibur, where did you buy them?

[Thick]

I use parchment paper in my excalibur.

[jenbooks]

I agree. As an environmental writer I can tell you plastics leach hormone mimics and none of them are safe to cook with or store things with. Use parchment or waxed paper.

[kaybee]

yep parchment paper. you can reuse it too a few times if you put the same type of thing on it (i.e. dont make onion bread and then cookies on the same one...yeeech. ) eachpeachpearplum also posted something about silicone mats that you could get....but i dont know if that was just for certain dehydrators or what. search for the thread and she also gave a definition of what silicone is...sounds safe.

[jenbooks]

How would you know at what heat plastics leach into your food? If you do a google search on plastics, you will find that nonyphenol, BPA, and other hormone mimics/endocrine disruptors/carcinogens all leached from plastics at room temperature. A new article I read today talked about toxins in water bottles, even from plastic lined metal caps. I certainly would not feel safe with teflex, and if you are already so health-oriened as to be raw food, use parchment on top of your teflex. At 90-100 degrees heat there is probably a great deal more leaching than you would like if you are often dehydrating food. Don't take the risk, why would you????

[jenbooks]

First of all, you need to measure your blood not your hair. Secondly, if you use parchment you wouldn't need to worry. Third, why expose yourself needlessly?

[Bananna]

...and (stupid question) what is parchment paper and where do you buy it?

...I thought it was just another name for wax paper, lol.

[Ilse W.]

...and waxed paper is, uh, waxed. I don't exactly want to eat that, either. And I'm sure the process to make parchment paper includes chemicals. There isn't anything made that doesn't. If you want to be super safe that you don't ingest anything harmful, quit breathing! I use my teflex sheets in the dehydrator, and I'm super picky about what I use to prepare my food and what kind of food I eat.

[Raspberry4]

Bananna - parchment paper is found in the grocery store usually next to the aluminum foil. I used to use it when I baked cookies, brownies, etc. to avoid the messy clean up.

[HolyGuacamole]

I'm not going to lose sleep over my teflex dehydrator sheets. <snip> why waste precious time worrying.


...and waxed paper is, uh, waxed. I don't exactly want to eat that, either. And I'm sure the process to make parchment paper includes chemicals. There isn't anything made that doesn't. If you want to be super safe that you don't ingest anything harmful, quit breathing! I use my teflex sheets in the dehydrator, and I'm super picky about what I use to prepare my food and what kind of food I eat.

Ditto and ditto. 'Sides, all the parchment I've seen around here is coated with Teflon anyway.

[Bananna]

Thanks Raspberry! I will look for it next time...you're sure it's not just french for wax?

Anyways, yes, I do get that ~everything~ sucks, but for me, I want to avoid Known carcinogens as much as possible. That's why I don't smoke, people around me don't smoke, I don't consume animal-based products, etc.

I don't know of any studies done on wax or parchment causing cancer outright. Teflon, is a carcinogen, which is fairly common knowledge. ..but hey, to each their own, it's just my preference to avoid it and I want to know what my alternatives are if I go buy a dehydrator. That's all.

[Bananna]

What? parchment is covered in teflon?

[jenbooks]

Teflex sheets are coated with Dupont Teflon. Do some research on this. For example:

'Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), the main ingredient of Teflon, has been found at low levels in the blood of the general population, including in umbilical cord blood, which shows that embryos and fetuses are now exposed to PFOAs. The chief source would be from food cooked in Teflon coated pots, pans, baking dishes and cookie sheets, and to a lesser extent, from Scotchguard used to stain-proof carpets and upholstered furniture.


And while papers written by chemists at DuPont and M3 find, quite predictably, little or no evidence of toxicity, independent authors do, and the EPA considers the health risk so high that it accuses Dupont of failing to report the health risks of Teflon.

One thing is well known. Pet birds exposed to the fumes from overheated Teflon pots or pans keel over dead.

And since PFOAs are commonly found in umbilical blood, I for one, would not want to expose an embryo or fetus, or my children, to this toxic chemical.

Again, we must always be aware of what may be a tolerable dose for an adult, is an immense dose for an embryo or fetus, and a huge dose for small children.'

http://www.truehealth.org/ahealn43.html

Parchment paper is coated with silicone. I think it's safer. Can't be sure however and I would have to research it.

Wax, if it's just plain old wax, is pretty innocuous.

[Bananna]

I just did some reading...yes, parchment is coated in silicone which for the mo is deemed safe. It went on to describe it's chemical process here: http://www.environmentalhealth.ca/greatchefs.htm

...gosh, nothing better to do on a saturday night, lol...

It did suggest using glass pans as a baking alternative. Do you think dehydrating using a glass casserole dish is realistic? I guess it would have to be oiled. Or maybe wood, pre-oiled. That would be cool, if it worked. A nice skinny little cutting board. What about a ceramic tray, like from Pampered Chef...?

I do think silicone is safer, since Teflon is Proven carcinogen...and silicone hasn't been proved so, if I had to chose between the two.

[Ilse W.]

Glass would be an excellent idea. Actually, how about a cookie sheet? Plain metal? That should do the trick. Yep, I would grease it with some coconut oil. I just searched google a little more about the teflex, and I agree now that if given a better option, I will go with it rather than teflex sheets. The teflon coating is carcinogenic when heated too high or when scratched, but why take chances when there are other options. Isn't it great to be female? People expect us to change our minds constantly.:D

[Bananna]

I LOVE changing my mind...lol.

I'm thinking glass or sheets or wood would be ok, I'm just wondering if it would block the air too much..or be too heavy for the trays, or even fit inbetween them. Since I have never used a dehydrator or even seen one, I don't really know.

[HolyGuacamole]

Well, I apologize - I just looked at my parchment and sure enough, it's coated with silicone, not teflon. DUH.

OK, I've changed my mind, too. I am off teflex.
Kind of a bummer since I only bought the darn sheets a few months ago.
Well, I guess that's good news since it means less exposure.

Sigh.

[jenbooks]

I am glad the others changed their mind. Rawlinda, no offense intended, but I simply don't understand you. How could someone go to such lengths to take care of their health and diet, and then use a known carcinogen (Teflon coated sheets) at 90-110 degrees for 12-24 hours to "dehydrate" ie slow cook their food? I simply don't understand. It's simple deduction that it will leach into the food, especially those fruit leathers that are goopy when wet, or the ground up flax for crackers etc--stuff that is spread evenly over the entire sheet. You don't need to worry of course, as worry is no good for you either, I simply don't understand why the evidence doesn't convince a health-oriented person like yourself.

As to hair samples, what goes into hair tends to be what the body can safely detox. These kind of carcinogens may initially be stored in fat. Did your doctor test for teflon residues?

Anyway, if this were somebody using teflon cookware and making bacon, hamburgers, chilidogs etc, ie no concern about their health I would find it easier to understand.

I too am concerned and think silicone is a better choice, ie parchment, but there's no proof. Recent research on plastic showed that even some of the supposed safest plastics leach so much hormone in the laboratories that they could not do the experiments (the hormone mimics from the plastics, even just in measuring stuff out, changed the experimental data and ruined it).

If we could use glass in the dehydrator that would be great. I use all glass cookware and pyrex to store things as it is (I'm not 100% raw). I am researching dehydrators and the plastic issue, especially since I've written at length about the harmful chemicals in plastic, is what is causing me to hesitate on what to buy. Any other suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

[jenbooks]

P.S. Rawlinda, they test blood. I just read that nice link from Bannana:

http://www.environmentalhealth.ca/greatchefs.htm

Scroll to the end and you'll see that PFOA (from teflon) was found in the blood. Perhaps you would let your health practitioners know that you regularly use teflon and see what they say. Maybe they should test your blood for PFOA. In any case, it could be you are low in other toxins because you avoid them, but if you have not tested for Teflon, you could be having chronic exposure. Why, if you have other choices?

Frankly, I can't be sure about the silicone either. I'm wondering about cookie sheets now, too. Let's all figure this out together so we can have safe dehydrators. :)

[spicyfull]

Silicone? I've never heard of silicone sheets, do you use an Excalibur, where did you buy them?


Silicone can be used in an oven to bake up to 500 degrees. I know you have seen those baking dishes that look like they are made of Plastic, that's Silicone. I use it in the dehydrator just like the teflex sheets, they are cheaper than the teflex. I don't use the dehydrator that often but I have No problem in using them.

[Bananna]

Thanks Spicyfull!

[Bananna]

So I found these stainless steel racks for the Excalibur
http://www.upayanaturals.com/100_Stainless_Steel_Dehydrator_Racks_15_x15_NSF_p/ed-1003.htm

...what is the rest of the unit made of...is it a plastic frame? Just curious...

[nhmom]

Hi all,

I am new to raw foods and am researching drying sheets to buy along with the Excalibur. Does anyone have experience with silicone sheets? Pros and cons of using them?

How about the disposable sheets? Pros and cons (e.g. flax crackers are difficult to make with these OR flax crackers are simple to make with them)?

Not many raw foodists seemed to concerned with the "TEFLEX" sheets. If anyone has any helpful information on the topic, please email me at the-thomasfamily@hotmail.com.

Thanks!

[Bananna]

Well I am not opposed to silicone sheets as they stand now with no blatant carcinogen warnings attached to them.

Disposable sheets, never used...so I can't comment on the ease of use, but I am not into disposable stuff if I can help creating such habits.

[cbritton]

My Good4U only came with 2 Teflex sheets, so while waiting for the ones I ordered to arrive, I've tried a few things. I've tried parchment paper, but for wet batters, it crinkles up and stretches, causing ripples in the finished product. (Which I guess isn't a huge deal if you aren't anal about those sorts of things =)). I didn't care for it, so I decided to try the silicon baking sheets. I purchased 2 of them at Target for about $5 each, and they work much better. Although they are slightly smaller than my tray, they are sturdy and rigid and don't move while I'm spreading the batter out.
I would definitely use those as a second option, although I must admit that the teflex sheets are definitely optimal!

[eachpeachpearplum]

OK, here is a link for Silicone Coated Teflex type mats!:cool:

http://www.harvestessentials.com/paul14x14f25.html

Cheers,

EPPP