These are the questions we actually get by email and in messages. We answer them in order and without glossing over anything — on two of the eight the answer partly counts against bamboo.
1. What adhesives are used?
A bamboo plate is made of layers of wood bonded together. Two things matter: the type of adhesive, and whether the adhesive is in contact with food. In good-quality products, adhesives suitable for food contact are used, and the joints sit inside the material rather than on the surface where the food lies.
What you can check yourself: ask the seller for the declaration of compliance for food contact. A serious supplier will have one.
2. Can bamboo go mouldy?
Yes — if it stays wet. Mould appears in wood when the item sits in water for a long time or dries in a closed space with no air. In normal use, where you wash the plate and wipe it dry, it doesn’t happen.
The commonest cause of mould we see in customers’ photos: a plate left in the sink overnight.
3. What happens with hot food?
Warm food does bamboo no harm. What does harm it is a sudden temperature change — boiling soup into a cold plate, say, or a plate of hot food under cold water. The layers of wood then expand at different rates and cracks form.
A practical rule: let the food stand for a minute or two so it is no longer boiling, and don’t wash the plate straight away in cold water.
4. Can it go in the dishwasher?
No. That is a limitation we can’t get around and won’t dress up. Heat, prolonged damp and aggressive detergents dry bamboo out and delaminate it. A plate that goes in the machine regularly will crack within a few months.
5. Can it go in the microwave?
No. Wood heats unevenly in a microwave and dries out, and the suction base isn’t made for those temperatures. Heat the food separately and transfer it to the plate.
6. Is the suction base safe?
The suction base is made of food-contact silicone and it is removable. Being removable matters for hygiene: otherwise moisture collects underneath. Once a week take it off, wash both parts and dry them separately.
How the suction base works and why it is a good thing that it gives way under a certain pressure, is covered in the piece on the suction base.
7. Does bamboo contain dyes?
We don’t dye our tableware. Only the silicone components are coloured. For other products on the market a rule of thumb holds: the more brightly and evenly coloured a bamboo product is, the more likely it is a composite with melamine resin rather than solid wood. Why that matters is explained in the piece on materials and European rules.
8. From what age?
From the point your child starts eating solid food — for most, around six months. More important than age are the signs of readiness we listed here. For younger babies the tableware isn’t needed.
What this means day to day
To sum up: bamboo tableware is safe as long as you wash it by hand, air-dry it and don’t expose it to temperature shocks. That is the entire list of conditions. If any of them doesn’t fit your day, silicone is probably the better fit for you — you’ll find the comparison in the piece on materials.
