The Kitchen Thinker: why glass beats plastic in the kitchen

Eco-friendly, impermeable and easy on the eye: glass containers are popular again

'A jam jar is eco-friendly and sturdy. Unlike so many other utensils, you feel it won’t fail you'
'A jam jar is eco-friendly and sturdy. Unlike so many other utensils, you feel it won’t fail you' Credit: Photo: RUTHLEWISILLUSTRATIONS.COM

In May a survey of more than 8,000 European consumers found there was something that worried people more than terrorist attacks, crime, road accidents or the environment. It was food safety. In particular, people said they worried about packaging, and harmful chemicals leaching into food.

It's always interesting to see where we choose to focus our fears about food. Arguably, if we want something to fret about, we should be more worried about campylobacter in chicken – which causes more than 280,000 cases of food poisoning per year in Britain – than about sunflower oil in a plastic bottle.

But our packaging anxiety has a happy consequence: the return of glass. The survey – admittedly commissioned by a group called Friends of Glass – found that consumers saw glass containers as much safer than plastic, metal or cartons. For those of us who like old-fashioned kitchen objects it's pleasing to see that glass jars – such as the Romans had more than 2,000 years ago – are now recognised as superior to plastic.

Glass is everywhere again. It started, like so much else in life, with coffee. Hipsters began sipping their morning brew on the way to work from an old canning-jar, in lieu of a Thermos. Then manufacturers started selling special lids to screw on to the jars to make the sipping easier.

Even Starbucks does a recycled-glass "cold cup" (£8.95). In some cool places jam jars are being "repurposed" and used to serve anything from water to cocktails to salad dressing to trifle.

There are many reasons to love glass containers. A jam jar is eco-friendly and sturdy. Unlike so many other kitchen utensils, you feel it won't fail you – unless you get butter-fingered and drop it. And glass is impermeable and inert: it lets nothing in and gives nothing out, therefore it won't give food a plasticky flavour.

Maybe the greatest appeal of glass is its beauty. The food writer Amanda Hesser, a co-founder of food52.com, has a blog about her twins' packed lunches, which I love. The lunches look so good – things such as green couscous and poached-tuna salad – because they are photographed in containers similar to Tupperware, but glass (made by Glasslock). There is something satisfying about the sight of ingredients arranged in glass. I am devoted to Kilner and Le Parfait jars for storing currants and raisins; flaked almonds and brown sugar; polenta and green lentils. At Nopi, in Soho, by the bar there is a row of clip-top jars full of exotic seasonings such as sumac and cardamom.

Pyrex is another form of glassware that is coming back. Originally called "fire glass" when it was patented in 1919, ovenproof glass once had a dowdy image. No more. The Conran Shop now stocks annealed-glass gravy boats and gratin dishes by Anchor Hocking. And consider the understated brilliance of the Pyrex measuring jug. Its markings are clear, it is almost impossible to break and it moves with grace from fridge to oven to dishwasher. All this, and nothing to worry about on the chemical front. A Pyrex jug is a safe bet in every sense.

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