I was making soup, and it involved removing some of it to reintroduce after pureeing. Not thinking, I just tossed the cooked mushrooms back into the plastic container they came in raw. After finishing everything in the pot, I tossed the mushrooms back into the soup, and noticed that the bottom of the plastic container they were sitting in was slightly warped. It is a #1 plastic (PET), and the mushrooms went into around 3L of soup. Do I need to just throw out the whole batch?
Plastic containers exposed to heat while cooking
food-safety
Related Solutions
Wash everything in very hot water, with dish soap, and rinse thoroughly. Unless there are at risk people in your home, this should be sufficient.
If you are very concerned, you can make a sanitizing agent by diluting bleach. The ratio would be about 1 tablespoon of bleach to one gallon of water, per this Oklahoma State University shared from UC Davis:
[...] about one tablespoon (1/2 fluid ounce, 15 ml) of typical chlorine bleach per gallon of water is the maximum that should be used for sanitizing food contact surfaces, according to federal regulation. If higher concentrations are used, the surface must be rinsed with potable water after sanitizing. Contact times of one to five minutes are usually sufficient to achieve a thorough kill, depending on chlorine concentration and organic load.
There are plastic oven bags like this
Source http://lamiacucina.wordpress.com/2014/02/20/saumon-en-papillote-au-citron-vert-lachs-in-folie/
that can be used at temperatures at least up to 200°C. I am sure that there should be equivalent baking pans with similar properties for baking goods.
In conclusion, referring to your link to another question: It depends on whether the plastic is supposed to be baked or not. The questioner of the other thread said he had forgotton to remove a piece of plastic that he had been supposed to. In your case: It is very likely safe.
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Best Answer
You should be perfectly fine. PET plastics do leach antimony, and the rate of leaching does increase with temperature, but it would take a much longer exposure time to be of any real concern. You would be putting yourself more at risk by drinking water out of a plastic bottle that had been left in the sun.
Here's a relevant study about water bottles: Antimony Leaching from PET
The abstract adequately addresses concerns to do with high temperatures and PET.
That said, safety is always the highest priority, and if you notice anything unusual about your soup, it's best to err on the side of caution.