Rice is a staple of Asian diets, and every household has a rice cooker. However, after a certain period of time, every kind of electrical appliances will be more or less depreciated or damaged. Earlier on, a reader left a message saying that the inner pot of a rice cooker which has been in use for less than three years is peeling off its coating, and he is worried that consuming the cooked rice may affect his health or cause cancer. Can a rice cooker with peeling coating still be used? How to avoid peeling?
What is the coating on the inner pot of a rice cooker?
Is the coating harmful to human body? First of all, we need to understand the structure of the inner pot of a rice cooker. Dr. Leung Ka Sing, Visiting Associate Professor of the Department of Food Science and Nutrition, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, said that the inner pots of rice cookers in the market are usually made of aluminum and sprayed with a coating to prevent sticking to the bottom. He added that the coating is a type of plastic called polytetrafluoroethylene (PTSE), which is not only used in the coating of rice cookers, but also in woks.
The maximum temperature of the rice cooker only reaches 100°C, which is a long way from the melting point.
Although Dr. Leung said that the coating is made of plastic, he admitted that the public need not worry too much, "PTSE will not be absorbed by the human body and will be excreted naturally after entering the body. Although PTSE may release toxic substances at high temperatures, the maximum temperature of a rice cooker is only 100 degrees Celsius, which is still a long way from the melting point of about 350 degrees Celsius, so under normal use, even if the coating is peeled off and eaten, it will not pose a danger to the human body." He said that the coating is made of plastic, but he said that the public should not worry too much. However, he pointed out that PTSE coating is also used in woks. If woks are allowed to dry-heat, toxins may be released when the temperature exceeds 350°C. Therefore, he suggested that caution should be exercised when using woks for cooking.
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Post time: Jul-20-2023
