Why you may not want to autoclave your foam stopper

[Infidel]

I was shopping for a foam stopper for a flask used to make yeast starters and noticed various companies are stating it is safe to autoclave the foam stoppers. They will survive autoclaving, and it is an excellent way of sterilizing them - but...
Many years ago one of the science supply houses sent out a letter stating there was a harmful chemical which could leach out during autoclaving and contaminate food. It may have been alcohol soluble too, foggy memory.
How much of what chemical? No idea, but the company that was selling them was concerned enough to send a letterhead notice by mail when they learned what homebrewers could be consuming.

Chances are small people autoclave their foam stoppers while they're in there flask full of wort. Great way to sterilize everything, but it can be a real mess if you don't use a drop of anti-foam silicone.

If you call your LHBS or mega-HBS, the person that anwers the phone probably never saw this letter. Chances are there is no one still working there that read the letter, if they received it at all or even opened it - probably junk mail, eh? I don't know what the chemical was. Maybe there is a new foam or maybe foam stoppers are now made from some treehugger approved hemp magic fun high-fiber, low carbohydrate super food foam.

Big problem? Probably not, my biggest concern is the misuse of there/their/they're in a poorly constructed sentence. Does the stopper belong to the flask, and did the person crawl into a flask ? or... cool, the pain medication is starting to wrok.

 

[TheCrackpot]

I agree

 

[nukebrewer]

I was shopping for a foam stopper for a flask used to make yeast starters and noticed various companies are stating it is safe to autoclave the foam stoppers. They will survive autoclaving, and it is an excellent way of sterilizing them - but...
Many years ago one of the science supply houses sent out a letter stating there was a harmful chemical which could leach out during autoclaving and contaminate food. It may have been alcohol soluble too, foggy memory.
How much of what chemical? No idea, but the company that was selling them was concerned enough to send a letterhead notice by mail when they learned what homebrewers could be consuming.

Chances are small people autoclave their foam stoppers while they're in there flask full of wort. Great way to sterilize everything, but it can be a real mess if you don't use a drop of anti-foam silicone.

If you call your LHBS or mega-HBS, the person that anwers the phone probably never saw this letter. Chances are there is no one still working there that read the letter, if they received it at all or even opened it - probably junk mail, eh? I don't know what the chemical was. Maybe there is a new foam or maybe foam stoppers are now made from some treehugger approved hemp magic fun high-fiber, low carbohydrate super food foam.

Big problem? Probably not, my biggest concern is the misuse of there/their/they're in a poorly constructed sentence. Does the stopper belong to the flask, and did the person crawl into a flask ? or... cool, the pain medication is starting to wrok.

Did you write the sentence in bold to be ironic or to see if anyone would catch it? I only ask because the underlined sentence contains a violation of the rule about which you claim to be chiefly concerned about.

As far as autoclaving goes, I've never even heard of the process, but I imagine it could release harmful chemical given the right material, similar to the warning I've heard that re-using soda bottles excessively can release BPA. If they're saying it's safe, they either came up with a new formula or they're just saying the material itself will survive, not necessarily that it doesn't release harmful chemicals.