A lot of products are billed as 100% silicone.  But did you know that a lot of these “100% silicone” claims are not necessarily true?  Did you know that food grade doesnt mean it has to be pure silicone?  Try the silicone pinch test to easily find out if something is pure silicone.

FDA Approved (or food grade) silicone does not mean 100% Silicone

Just because some company says that their products are fda approved or food grade silicone doesn’t mean that it is pure silicone.  The FDA publishes standards to which you must test products that are going to be put into contact with food.

A key item to note in these standards is that Silicone products are allowed to have impurities or fillers as long as they stay beneath the “safe” levels.

This means that your “food safe” silicone can still have fillers in it.

That’s an important distinction to note as many offshore manufacturers will put in fillers or processing additives to make their products cheaper as long as they can stay within the bounds of the FDA tests.

How to check for potential fillers with the pinch test.

Whenever you buy a silicone product you can easily test to see if it contains fillers using the pinch or twist test.  Its as easy as it sounds – pinch or twist the silicone – if it changes to a whiteish color, then it most likely has plastic fillers in it and is not 100% pure silicone.

Pure 100% silicone does not change color when you twist or pinch it.

All of our products (teethers, spoons and cups) are made of 100% pure food grade silicone and made here in the USA and will never change color if you pinch them.

Should Silicone Products Smell?

A common complaint with cheaper silicone products (normally made in China) is that they stink and retain their smell, even after being washed.

People typically ask “does silicone have an odor or taste?”

The answer is no – silicone should not have a smell or taste.

But a lot of cheaper baby products will have a chemical smell to them right after being bought, and this is because the manufacturers are using cheap silicone and cheaper processing methods to make their products.

Part of this smell is because silicone products undergo a curing process during manufacturing , and to make sure that the silicone has completely cured, good manufacturers should put the product though a secondary curing

This secondary cure makes sure that the product is completely cured (otherwise it could finish the curing process when you next heat it up or use it, resulting in the smells you encounter).

100% Pure Food Grade silicone is odorless and inert and should not have any smells to it if it was properly made.

Unfortunately a lot of overseas manufacturers cheap out on the process and you end up with cheap potentially unhealthy smelly products with fillers.

Why we Manufacture in the USA

These are some of the reasons we only use reputable manufacturers here in the USA to make our silicone products.

These manufacturers cost more to make our products, but it is worth it to us as we know that we are getting 100% silicone products and not cheap products with unhealthy fillers.