Melamine is used to make a variety of hard plastic cups, plates, bowls, and utensils

because they're dishwasher safe, inexpensive, and durable. If that word sounds familiar, it may be because melamine is also illegally added to protein

products that game the system to make it appear that pet food has more protein than it does,

for example. By 2007, more than a thousand potentially contaminated pet food products were recalled,

after it was found to be contaminated in the wheat gluten used in those products,

but not before it caused disease and death in pets throughout North America.

It's presumed that the melamine was intentionally added by suppliers in China to falsely

elevate the measured protein content, and hence the monetary value of these products,

and the pet food scandal was just the writing on the wall.

The next year, melamine was discovered to cause an outbreak of kidney stones and kidney failure

affecting hundreds of thousands

of infants and young children throughout China when melamine was used to falsify the protein

content of infant formula and powdered milk.

In the U.S., you can find it in food packaging and sneaking its way into animal feed,

but those using melamine dishware can be exposed directly migrating straight

into the food upon exposure to heat.

So yeah, cooking spoons and dishes made out of melamine are not suited for microwaves

and cooking, according to food safety authorities.

Okay, but what if you never cook with it, fry with it, or microwave it?

What if you just use it to eat out of?

A crossover study of noodle soup consumption in melamine bowls versus the same soup

eaten out of ceramic bowls, and then just measuring them out of melamine, flowing through

...