We’ve noticed this before with the bottles of ground clove we use. All of the other containers, of which we have a couple dozen, are completely fine. However, the one that contains clove is clearly degrading, and the plastic is very squishy and developing small cracks. We are mystified. Is there an enzyme in clove that eats plastic? Anybody else ever seen this?
Plastic bottle being eaten from within by…clove?
byu/CaptWineTeeth inKitchenConfidential
by CaptWineTeeth
32 Comments
Ill be putting all of my ground clove into glass jars from now on thank you. I’ve never noticed this, but I’ve never gotten a large jar of ground cloves either, usually just whole cloves in the large size and ground in a home size.
From the Google machine;
“Most of the odor of cloves comes from volatile molecules, especially eugenol, found in the cloves. Eugenol is a water-immiscible, oily liquid at ambient temperatures.
Plastic with resin identifiction code #6 is polystyrene.
Polystyrene is not compatible with most organic solvents, because it tends to be softened, swelled, or even completely dissolved by them.”
That looks like heat damage..
How many years old are those giant spice jugs?
I also have a wonky cloves jar that I’ve been wondering about for years!! Thanks for posting this
There’s a reason why oil of clove is sold in glass containers, and now you know why.
It’s the clove oil. Clove essential oil is known to do this.
I will always be King of Spice
Possibly naive question but surely the mfg knows this about clove…why wouldn’t it be packaged differently? Are food mfg laws really that lax? I have a skincare brand and we went to considerable effort to make sure none of our ingredients contraindicated with our desired packaging. This seems egregious to me.
Did you know: clove oil has been historically used for anal lube because of its numbing properties? It’s even still commonly used today, with a popular brand being “Swiss Navy.”
Could we use Clove to get rid of plastic waste?
#hmm that’s a health violation
Ground Anise will do it, too. Learned that the hard way.
Might want crosspost on plasticfreeliving
Almost looks like it was just taken from under the heat lamp
White pepper does this too
Yeah cloves will do this. If you’ve ever ground up cloves in a spice grinder with any plastic parts, you know this pain.
Was it kept anywhere near the grill by any chance
I can almost guarantee that bottles 5 yrs old. No one going thru that much clove that fast
Well, yes. The plastic is the secret ingredient in “pumpkin spice”
Cloves should only be stored in glass containers
That is heat damage. Your spices are too close to your heat now all of them taste like plastic.
I once ground clove in my spice grinder. The clear plastic lid became completely opaque and coarse to the touch. I’ve kept my clove far away from plastics since
I highly recommend you get a separate container for your cloves and immediately use it for long term storage from now on. The plastic is literally degrading into your food.
I work at a spice shop, clove eating plastic is a constant pain in our collective asses
I’d contact the retailer, the manufacturer, and probably the FDA, if we still have an FDA.
Eugenol is the main component of clove oil and basically a solvent, if you look at the structure of eugenol and common plastics like PETE you’ll notice they look pretty similar. Like dissolves like and all that
Clove is a filter food nearly. Great for toothaches.
Likely volatile oils from the clove are plasticizing the bottle.
Yes, that reaction would be called. It’s a plasticizer… I worked at a chemical company for a while and had to do rework where we would repackage product that had defects or leaked. What are those particular products was DEET ( OFF BRAND) it would literally melt the plastic
I’m a dentist. Clove oil (eugenol) is in a couple of products we use. Can’t use eugenol-containing liners/adhesives underneath composite resin (white) fillings as it inhibits their setting. Annoying as these liners are good for settling inflamed nerves and were very popular under the old silver amalgam fillings.
It’s the essential oils of the clove. They degrade plastic. Transfer to glass.