I got a nylon bag which is marked 'PA' in the label, which I think is polyamide.
I plan to use it for mashing barley grains in homebrewing ( 62C to 78C, PH ~ 5, 90 minutes ).
The bag is black and was originally intended for washing clothes.
Is it food safe in this setting?
Will it leach chemicals?
Best Answer
Pure polyamide is foodsafe at these temperatures, they make pan spatulas out of them, which are safe to about 200 Celsius.
The problem is that we cannot know if your bag is 100% pure polyamide. It could be that the coloring is not food safe, or that it was contaminated with something inedible during production. So nobody can promise you that a nylon bag from unknown origin is food safe.
Products meant to be used in the home are unlikely to be produced where they can come in contact with extreme irritants. So you can decide to take the risk as one more potential environmental pollution, and go with it. Or you can think that it's not worth it, and look for other bags. In any case, there is no indication that the main material (nylon) will cause any trouble.