Is it safe to microwave in melamine ware?

Answer 1

Do not microwave melamine. It will absorb the radiation and heat the bowl, plate, etc. and not the food. If it gets hot enough the melamine can become unstable creating bubbles or a break down in structure. Melamine resin will not melt and does have flame retardant properties making it great for many uses except in the microwave. Why then do they use it in kitchen wears? Well its cheap and until the advent of the microwave it served its purpose.

Answer 2

Melamine is a material that has long been used in food service. It is generally something that is quite benign. But if anything is heated in melamine and the material begins to "burn" or to "decompose" in any way, it may become toxic. If your melamine ware does not become black or "darken" with use, it is generally still safe to use. Let's look just a bit more closely.

Melamine (melamine resin, actually) is what is essentially a type of plastic. This plastic is chemically fairly inert. That means that it doesn't want to combine with other stuff we normally encounter in the food service arena. That makes it fairly safe. But if melamine is heated too much, it will begin to decompose, and this is where the trouble begins. Toxic products begin to form as this (or just about any other) plastic reaches a "critical" temperature.

In a microwave, it is possible to heat things that are put into a melamine container well above the boiling point of water. Though the microwave oven generally acts to heat water molecules (because they are strong absorbers of microwave radiation), that doesn't mean it won't heat anything else. Oils, grease, melamine itself, and other things that absorb microwave radiation will also be heated by the microwave energy. Many of us have heated something in a plastic bowl or on a plastic plate, only to have that bowl or plate melt in a few places because something really hot was there.

Using melamine in a "normal" way (i.e. for serving only, not heating) won't present any hazards. But if any of your melamine ware is discolored or darkened by use in a microwave or other heating/cooking appliances, it is wise to replace it. For safety (or peace of mind), use glass, ceramic, or paper bowls or dishes (that are microwave safe) in a microwave oven (covering them in use, of course). That may make the best sense.

Note: It is not really an issue of producing toxins, melamine if used by itself with nothing at all in it in a microwave cooker will get very hot and can actually catch fireas it is a strong absorber of microwave radiation (most other plastics stay cool in a microwave cooker as they are transparent to microwave radiation). This is why the manufactures of microwave cookers universally say not to use melamine dishes in their machines and some even say such use will void the warranty. I have quite a few melamine dishes myself and DO use them occasionally in my microwave, but only with extreme caution! I only use them with leftovers (never to actually cook anything) that will totally fill the dish so that all heat generated in the melamine will be transfered to the food so that no hotspots can develop on the dish, I continuously monitor the microwave cooker during heating while using a melamine dish, and I always use oven mitts to remove melamine dishes when the heating is over as while the food is rarely much hotter than boiling temperature the melamine dish even with the food on it is often hotter than 300F!! If you cannot follow these rules, then stick to the manufacture's advice and keep the melamine dishes on your dining table and away from your microwave cooker!

There is one advantage of reheating leftovers in a melamine dish instead of some other dish: frequently microwave reheated food seems to cool off much too fast, this is because the dish is still cold; but as the melamine dish usually comes out of the microwave cooker noticeably hotter than the food that is on it, the hot melamine dish helps keep the food warm.