A slow cooker is an essential tool for quick and easy cooking, but sometimes the cleaning can be a hassle and a mess. Many home cooks use plastic liners to prevent messy cleaning, but are slow cooker plastic liners safe?

It is a fact that consuming chemicals in plastics are harmful to one’s health. Janilyn Hutchings, a food safety professional at StateFoodSafety, told EatingWell that since the exact chemicals and plastics used in slow cooker liners aren't public knowledge, it is difficult to say one way or another just how safe slow cooker liners are.

Charry Brown, senior manager at Reynolds Test Kitchen, told Allrecipes it is possible to find slow cooker liners ranked safe for use up to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and BPA-free. Reynolds and Crockpot both sell FDA-approved slow cooker liners made from nylon resin, and Brown points out that a more immediate safety risk slow cooker liners might pose is breakage.