Walchit said:
I would cut the bag with some extra room for expansion. But I also worry about plastic. I know a lot of guys vacuum seal their BBQ and then heat it up in a pot of water. I'm pretty sure they are BPA free, but what chemicals they do have I'm not sure.
Funny thing about BPA is that it's the plasticizer we know most about in terms of toxicity. It's that understanding of toxicity that has villified BPA. In "BPA-free" plastics, BPA has just been replaced with other plasticizers whose toxicicty is less understood. Doesn't make it safer. It's just gambling.
Unfortunately, plastics manufacturers are allowed broad authority to put whatever the hell they want into their resins. To qualify as food safe from the FDA or other regulatory bodies, they have to reveal their resin content, but only to the regulators, not to the consumer. The "food safe" regulations are regrettably pretty loose. This is why pharmaceutical manufacturers usually have to do actual leachable and extractable studies on their containers, even when they are considered food safe. Food manufacturers don't do this, even though food containers are more likely to be exposed to extremes in pH, oil content, and temperature than drug containers. It's totally backwards. The disparity between food and drug regulation, particularly in regards to containers and impurities/adulterants, is obscene. Food regulations are dangerously loose.
Anyway, using the vacuum bags for pepper fermentation is likely to be safe relative to other uses of vacuum bags. Sou vide is a good example, where the elevated temperatures greatly accelerate the leaching of plasticizes and other resin ingredients into food.
pH changes are rarely an issue because most resin ingredients are not acids or bases.
Oil is an issue because plasticizers and other leachables are typically very fat soluble. Again, not so much an issue for pepper fermentation.
BTW I was also inspired by ChilliChump's vid, and plan to finish my vacuum bag Bahamian Goat/Brainstrain/BTR Scorpion ferment next weekend
The_NorthEast_ChileMan said:
Recent studies suggest that BPA exposure from thermal paper receipts may be greater than that from food. BPA is more readily absorbed through skin than through the digestive system due to its very low water solubility.
Walchit said:
My buddy quit feeding his kid dyes and all off his behavioral problems diminished. They put shit in our food and drink that they know causes problems, I would say its on purpose, lets big pharma keep making money to pump even more chemicals into us.
You have to have a high paying job to afford not to eat the shit though. Guess I'm just a broke guinea pig
Big pharma is not responsible for the chemicals in the food supply or in food containers. Other than Bayer, pharma is not widely involved in the agrichem business. Pharma is much, much more highly regulated and must demonstrate that drug containers do not leach dangerous chemicals into drugs. They also have to demonstrate extremely high levels of purity and stability in drug products.
Food suppliers do not do this.
This is dangerous because we consume food by the pound and drugs by the milligram to gram. The food supply exposes us to vastly, almost incomparably, greater amounts of mystery toxicants through an essentially unregulated supply chain.
