How To Reheat Food In Foil Containers (With useful tips)
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Sometimes when you’re having your food, you may come to the realization that you may have leftovers. In such cases, it is great to store the food somewhere for you to eat later and foil containers are the easiest option for this. But, when you want to warm up and finish off the leftover food, you may ask, how do you reheat food in foil containers?
You can reheat your food in the oven in limited portions on a power that is suitable for the type of food you’re reheating. It is best to reheat the food at 165 degrees F. Stir and check your food from time to time while you’re reheating before you finally take it out of the oven. Don’t leave the leftover outside for more than 2 hours and in your fridge for more than 4 days.
Reheating food at the correct temperature can often be tricky. Continue reading the full article to know the ways of reheating different kinds of dishes in foil containers and more.
Can You Put Foil Containers In The Oven?
Foil containers can be safely used in the oven. It is a good conductor of heat which means the heat is evenly distributed throughout, heating the food perfectly. Although, you need to make sure the container does not touch the sides of the oven inside, or else it will cause sparks which is dangerous.
The container can bear extremely high temperatures without creating any disaster, like fire, due to its high thermal conductivity. The food heats up from the top opening of the container. For more security, it is best to use shallow containers, about 3 cm deep. The container protects the food from overheating.
How To Reheat Food In Foil Containers?
There are conventional methods to reheat your food in foil containers. The container needs to be put in a certain way in the oven so you can heat your food safely and properly. Let’s look at the step-by-step guide to heating your food correctly.
- Remove The Lid
If the foil container has a lid or sealing film, you will need to remove it before heating your food in the oven. As the food warms up from the opening, putting on a lid might not heat the food throughout.
A cardboard lid is more dangerous as it is more prone to catch fire when the foil container becomes very hot. However, this may not always be the case. If you’re only reheating your food for a few minutes, it is unlikely that the lid will catch fire.
- Fully Cover The Bottom
When you’re reheating your food in a foil container, you need to make sure the meal covers the bottom of the container fully. Spreading out the food evenly helps it warm up throughout.
If you don’t do so, the container may get more heated up than usual, causing it to create sparks. Thus, this not only creates a hindrance in heating your food but causes safety hazards as well.
- Place The Container In The Middle Of The Oven
You need to place the foil container in the middle of the turn-table of the oven and make sure it does not touch the walls of it. This eliminates the risks of creating electrical sparks, known as arching.
Foil containers are made of metal and coming in contact with the walls of the oven generates this problem. However, if arching does occur, you need to turn off your oven instantly. This may not start a fire but can cause damage to the walls of your oven.
- One At A Time
You should only use one foil container in the oven at a time. This is ideal as there might not be enough space in your oven to put more than one container at the same time. Moreover, if you decide to do so by placing them side by side, they will touch the oven walls causing sparks.
Placing them on top of one another is not very convenient as well as it is quite likely that the meal in one container might not heat up at all! Thus, it is best to heat your food one container at a time, taking it out when it is completely warm before putting another one in.
Where Can You Get Foil Containers?
Foil containers are available at most grocery stores. You can also order foil containers from Amazon. I’ve ordered these before for my own use when reheating leftovers or making a quick meal on the go. The price is reasonable and does the job
Why Foil Containers Are Best For Reheating Food
The packaging of foil containers has many benefits over other forms of packaging due to which it is now widely seen in restaurants and homes. It is not convenient but preserves the quality of the food as well. This durable and recyclable container has many other benefits too. Let’s find out what they are!
- It Is Safe
The foil containers are made without any harmful materials or heavy metal. During this process, manufacturers carry out a disinfection procedure at a high temperature. This assures that the containers are safe to use and store food, unlike most plastic containers.
It will not hold or generate new bacteria growth as well. Traditionally, due to the substances in the foil containers, it is unlikely that they will react with food.
- Convenient For Heating
As these containers have a high heat conductivity, it heats food comparatively faster. It also has good thermal support which can endure the high temperature of the microwave. The containers don’t crumble or deform under such temperatures.
On the contrary, plastic containers are comparatively less resistant to high temperatures and can produce harmful substances under extreme heat.
- Ensures Food Hygiene And Durability
The composition of these containers is of materials that ensure that they don’t easily deform under high heat. This means that they can preserve the strong heat and freshness of the food for a long time.
This avoids contamination while storing your food, reducing food waste. The packaging also secures moisture and prevents any leakage, maintaining the taste of the meal.
- Multi-purpose Cooking
You can put foil containers both in the traditional oven as well as the microwave. If you want to simply reheat your food you can put it in the oven for a few minutes and your food will be warmed up in seconds.
If you want to cook something in foil containers then you can use the microwave with some precautions. You can even put more than one container too as a microwave is quite spacious.
Drawbacks Of Heating Food In Foil Containers
Heating food in foil containers could increase the amount of aluminum in foods. This can especially happen when you’re heating in high temperatures.
It prevents oxygen from passing through which can ruin your meal if you keep it outside for too long. That is such a waste of food! There are also potential health risks of too much aluminum in your body. Nevertheless, often they are harmful to the environment as many people don’t make the effort to ensure that it’s recycled despite being completely recyclable.
But if you follow the proper instructions of using aluminum foil for reheating as I’ve discussed in the article you shouldn’t worry about a thing. These containers are also reusable so you can just wash and use them over and over again. This way you can limit the environmental effect of using foil containers as well.
Conclusion
Now that you know how to reheat food in foil containers, it is needless to say that it is completely safe to use them in the oven to reheat food. The small amounts of aluminum going into the food and then into your body is insignificant and are not as hazardous.
