Why you should throw away your black plastic cooking utensils

(NEXSTAR) – The tools you cook with may be introducing an unwanted ingredient into your family dinner: flame retardant.

A study, published last month in the journal Chemosphere, tested 203 household products made of black plastic. The researchers found 85% of them contained high concentrations of flame retardant.

When cooking or serving with black plastic utensils, like spatulas, tongs and ladles, the toxic materials inside can seep into your food. Heat makes the leaching occur even faster.