Great Ways to Use Silicone Food Covers in Your Kitchen

What would happen if you stopped using plastic wrap in your household? Perhaps it's a daunting thought, but the good news is, it’s possible! and it’s not going to start a world war.  One simple low-waste product swap is to sub out plastic food wrap for some of the best eco friendly food covers around: silicone reusable food covers.

Silicone covers  are a great reusable and vegan alternative to cling wrap, and they have more uses than just covering bowls! 

What are Silicone Food Covers?

Silicone food covers are a reusable alternative to plastic food wrap.

A HUGE, reusable upgrade on single-use plastic wrap has arrived! Think of the flexibility of a rubber band crossed with dishwasher-hardy Tupperware. Our reusable Silicone Food Covers can be stretched enough to grip onto smooth surfaces and keep food air tight – yay for fresh food! 

What can silicone food wrap be used for? 

Silicone Food Covers can be use as a lid to cover just about anything! Think covering salad bowls, covering the half-used can of pet food, keeping smoothie's fresh in a glass, or covering any plastic container with out a lid.

The food covers are available in multiple sizes, so you can cover all sizes of those bowls or containers which have lost their lids.

How to Use Your Reusable Silicone Covers:

The plastic-free Silicone Food Wrap work best when they and the surface you’re putting them on is clean, dry and oil free. Make sure the bumpy spots are facing up (towards you). They work best on glass or glazed ceramic bowls. Plates may not work so well with the reusable food covering, since they usually aren’t deep enough, and the wrap likes to grip to the wall of a bowl or container.

A caution: be careful if you have long fingernails as they may puncture the silicone cover. 

 

 

How to apply silicone food wrap

Firstly, choose a stretch cover that is about the same width as the diameter of the bowl/container. Holding each side of the food cover; catch the rim of the bowl closest to you and then stretch the silicone cover wide and forward by your spreading fingers. Use your thumbs on top to then push the far edge over the rim of the bowl.  You may need to place one hand over the reusable cover to secure it for a moment and gently stretch some sections of the cover wider to catch the rim of the bowl. 

The covers won’t stick directly on to food, so if you would like something to directly wrap on to food check out our beeswax wraps. If you are looking for something you can simply store food in that is made from silicone, we have silicone food pouches to keep you sorted.  Read our blog post about the fantastic uses for Silicone Food Pouches here. 

 

How to Clean Silicone Stretch Covers

We love products with simple cleaning instructions: wash your covers in the dishwasher - they're 100% dishwasher safe, and super hygienic. If you don’t have a dishwasher, don’t worry - they are still easy to clean in a sink by hand with hot water and soap.

How to Store Your Plastic-free Silicone Covers

We recommend rolling them up (similar to the way they come in the box) so they avoid puncture damage from potential sharp things around your kitchen. You can keep them anywhere that suits your kitchen storage options - try storing them rolled in the cutlery drawer, or hanging on a bulldog clip in the pantry, 

Can Silicone Covers go in the oven?

Yes - our silicone covers are oven safe - in fact, they withstand to heat up to 260 degrees Celsius.

Our customers’ favourite oven use for them is as a replacement for baking paper! We’ve all been there- having a perfect cake stick to the bottom of your baking tray is a bakers nightmare! Cakes easily come off the food covers, meaning you’ll never have to get your spatula out to lever out your cakes again. Use the food cover as a cake tin liner.

Many people are shocked when they find out that baking paper isn’t biodegradable since it’s lined with silicone, so you’ll also be helping avoid more waste by replacing single-use baking paper! 

Our team members often use Silicone Covers as oven dish liners. Similar to how you would use them as a baking paper substitute, they are great for ensuring your vegetables and meats don’t stick to the bottom of your baking dish. The best part is, you won’t need to use any fattening oils to avoid food sticking to your dish since the silicone covers prevent stick from occurring all on their own. 

Can you microwave silicone?

We get a lot of people asking: can you microwave silicone? Covering bowls with Silicone Covers and popping it in the microwave is one of the most popular uses for our silicone covers - they work just like glass microwave covers. Place them loosely over bowls to steam vegetables, and tightly to defrost anything - and of course just use them to heat up our leftovers in the microwave! 

Can you Freeze Silicone Food Wrap?

The covers are freezer safe! Silicone Covers cannot only withstand heat but can be used in the freezer as well. We like to freeze seasonal berries with them. 

Silicone Bowl Covers: The Perfect Kitchen Item for Food Storage

The most popular uses for Silicone Covers would have to be as a simple bowl cover to cover up your leftovers in the fridge, or covering pots and pans! 

Silicone products are extremely hygienic, meaning they are the perfect material to use with high bacteria products such as raw meat. Try marinating and using your silicone to cover the marinating meats in the fridge! Just be sure to wash thoroughly in hot, soapy water (or, throw them into the dishwasher). 

Missing lids? Stretchy Silicone Food Covers are the Pantry Essential

Everyone loses lids all the time. Luckily for you, our Silicone Food Covers come in four different sizes, with the smallest size being a perfect replacement for missing jar lids in your pantry! 

 

Are Silicone Food Covers Safe?

The short answer: YES! Much safer than using plastic, and for a number of reasons...

Our Silicone Covers are made with pure platinum silicone- but how is this better than plastic? Let’s break down the actual components of the two products. 

Firstly, plastic wrap (even ‘microwave safe wrap’) is compromised of petroleum and estrogen mimicking chemicals. Petroleum is used to make fuel for your car and road oils. Studies have found that prolonged exposure to estrogen mimicking chemicals are heavily linked to breast, uterine and prostate cancer and other diseases such as heart disease and strokes, as well as deformities in aquatic animals (Estrogen and Estrogen Mimics, University of Wisconsin, 2020). 

Pure platinum silicone is made with inert silicone (a fancy way of saying ‘sand’) and oxygen. 

Just looking at the ingredient lists for these two products; we know which we would rather have in contact with food that comes into our body. 

Silicone lasts longer and withstands extreme hot and cold temperatures at a significantly better rate than plastics, and can even be recycled at certain facilities (not your curb side recycling bin). 

When burned or melted (which for our silicone covers is at temperatures above 230 degrees Celsius), silicone reverts to its pure ingredients which are harmless (carbon dioxide, amorphous silica and water vapour). Plastic when burned or melted releases that petroleum and estrogen mimicking chemical mixture into the air and your home. 

Why we have the best silicone food covers for food and why you will love them too!

Our silicone food covers are so versatile and handy, as you are probably now aware! Oven-safe, microwave safe, dishwasher safe! Not only can they be used to cover your food but you can cook with them too. Silicone is AMAZING, we love it. And we have a few great blogs telling you just why. If you want to learn more about silicone and why silicone is fast becoming a kitchen must-have, check out these blogs:

Keeping Food Fresh with Silicone Food Covers

Top 5 Benefits of Reusable Silicone Baking Paper

5 Simple Ways to go Plastic Free

Food Blogger Steph Geddes highly recommends using plastic-free Silicone Food Covers in your kitchen, in fact they are one of her Must-Have Kitchen Tools, read the blog here.

Versatility in the Kitchen - What More Could You Want?

Silicone lids are so versatile, the only limit to their use is your creativity! We would love to hear about how you use your covers- let us know on Instagram or Facebook @SUSTOMi, or feel free to send us an email! 

Let us know how you use your Food Covers!