Ingredient glossary
Depends on contextSilicone (siloxanes)
What it is
Silicone is a soft, heat-resistant polymer made from a silicon-oxygen backbone. It is the standard material for baby-bottle nipples and is also used for straws, spouts, valves, sleeves and, in some products, whole bottle or cup bodies. Platinum-cured is a manufacturing method, not a measure of purity.
Why it's flagged
Silicone is not perfectly inert. A 2026 study in Foods tested 35 siloxanes migrating from 30 silicone food-contact products sold in China into food simulants under worst-case conditions and modelled exposure: cyclic siloxanes exceeded proposed limits in several samples, and 14 low-molecular-weight siloxanes exceeded the threshold of toxicological concern in its modelled scenarios, while D4 and D5 showed negligible risk. Our research also records a 2025 Food Control study reporting particle release from tested silicone feeding bottles that rose with temperature; we could not re-read that abstract.
How concerned to be
Neither study tested a named US product or measured a health outcome, and the Foods exposure figures are modelled, so they show that migration and particle release are possible and not that any silicone product harms a baby. Silicone remains a practical and often preferred nipple and spout material, which is why we do not mark it down for being silicone. We do not accept "100% silicone" as proof of zero migration, and exact-product laboratory data for the silicone products we reviewed was not found.
What it's called on a label
Look for any of these on an ingredient list: Silicone rubber, Liquid silicone rubber, LSR, Platinum-cured silicone, Food-grade silicone, Silicone, 100% silicone, Medical-grade silicone.