These Common Items Don’t Actually Belong In The Microwave

To prevent food splatter or explosions in the microwave, cover your dish with a lid. This not only contains mess but can also accelerate cooking by trapping heat.

If you’re using a plastic container, leave the lid slightly ajar to allow steam to vent as tightly-sealed plastic vessels don’t usually offer a place for heat to escape.

Avoid placing metal items, like Chinese takeout boxes with thin wire handles, steel-coated containers, or dishes with metallic paint or decorations, in the microwave.

Microwaves have electrons, which interact with the water molecules in your food. However, when metal is introduced to the mix, electrons can go haywire and cause damage.

Microwave melts Styrofoam boxes and brings out chemicals from the polystyrene foam. These chemicals can leach into your food and negatively affect your health.

Therefore, unless your Styrofoam container carries a label indicating that it’s microwave-safe, it's best to take your leftovers out of the container they came in.

Microwaving baked goods, such as bread, muffins, or donuts, can cause the sugar molecules to melt, transforming them from soft and cohesive into a crystallized mess.

These sugar crystals will then harden, which is why your baked treats feel chewy and almost rubbery when they come out of the microwave, and then turn rock hard within minutes.

Cook and store rice at a high or low enough temperature to keep a bacteria called Bacillus cereus at bay. Cooked rice should only be left out of the fridge for an hour or less.

Once rice is in the fridge, don’t allow it to linger for more than a day. When microwaving rice, you’ll want to heat it for longer than you think — at least 3 or 4 minutes.