Is Silicone a Safe Plastic Alternative?

Viroqua Plastic Free
Aug 27, 2025
2 min read

Silicone products are touted as being the answer to plastic product concerns. Brightly colored silicone is widely used for cookware, bakeware, kitchen utensils, food storage, baby products, toys, medical devices and much more. Like plastic, it can be molded into any shape, hard or soft, and is water resistant, temperature resistant and easy to clean.

While it is often marketed as being a “healthy” or “natural” alternative to plastic, silicone shares many characteristics with plastic. Silicone is a polymer and is made from identical repeating chains of oxygen and silicon whereas plastic is made from identical repeating chains of carbon and hydrogen.

Silicone is not a natural material and the industrial process to produce silicone involves heating silica which is found in sand and quartz to extremely high temperatures, then cooling and grinding the resulting silicon into a powder after which it undergoes chemical processes to become a silicone polymer.

Because it is a synthetic material like fossil-fuel plastic, silicone does not biodegrade. It is poorly recycled and typically ends up in the same places that plastic does – the landfill, the environment or an incinerator.

Silicone is considered to be more durable and less reactive to chemicals than plastic. However, many silicone products contain the same chemical additives that have created concern in conventional plastic products. Research conducted by The European Consumer Organization (BEUC) suggests that these additives may leach out, especially when the products are exposed to heat.

Quality appears to be an important factor for any silicone products that come in contact with food. According to Dr. Lisa Erdle, Director of Science and Innovation at the 5 Gyres Institute, “High-quality food-grade silicone does not appear to leach harmful chemicals under normal cooking conditions. However, low-quality products may contain additives, such as plasticizers or colorants, that are not inert and could leach when heated.”

If you are considering the purchase of a silicone product, look for “100% food-grade” or “LFGB-certified” on the label. As part of the certification process, both the FDA and LFGB (the German food safety standard) test to ensure that harmful additives and fillers like BPA, BPS, phthalates, lead, latex, or PVC are not found in the silicone. LFGB standards are stricter than the FDA and products that are LFGB-certified are correspondingly more expensive.

While silicone may be more stable than fossil-fuel plastic, it is probably wise to be extremely cautious when choosing bakeware or other items that come into contact with food or items that children might put in their mouths. More research is needed to fully understand the impact of silicone on our bodies and the environment. Plus, it is important to remember that when plastic was first introduced to consumers, it, too, was presumed to be safe.