A surprising number of foods contain microplastics. Here’s how to reduce the amount we consume.
People are starting to realize that they can find microplastics in food. However, exposure from other foods is much more common than most realize.
Several studies have already shown that the daily intake of microplastics through food and drinks can reach up to 1.5 million microplastic particles per day.
Here are five of the most surprising sources of microplastics in food and drink.
1. Chewing gum
When you chew gum, you are essentially chewing on a piece of plastic. Most chewing gum is made from a gum base – plastics and rubber – to which sweeteners and flavorings are added.
As you chew, the gum base releases microplastics. A single gram of chewing gum can release up to 637 microplastic particles.
Natural tablets made from vegetable polymers are not much better. They release a similar number of microplastics as synthetic gum. This suggests that microplastics do not just come from the gum base, but may be due to introduction of microplastics during the production or packaging process.
Most microplastics are released within the first eight minutes of chewing, so to reduce exposure, chew a gum for longer rather than constantly putting new ones in your mouth. Or the best alternative is not to chew.
2. Sal
Salt may seem like a pure and simple ingredient, but studies have shown that 94% of salt products tested worldwide are contaminated with microplastics.
Contamination is so widespread that sea salt has even been proposed as an indicator of microplastic pollution in the marine environment.
It was found that the contamination is highest in terrestrial saltslike Himalayan salt, than in sea salts.
New technologies are being investigated to help clean up sea salt. However, It is likely that much of the contamination comes from production and packaging.
Salt mills may also be making the situation worse. Disposable spice mills made from plastic can release up to 7,628 particles when grinding just 0.1 g of salt.
3. Apples and carrots
As mentioned, microplastic contamination in fruits and vegetables that we buy in the supermarket has been identified in several studies.
Nanoplastics, which are plastic particles smaller than 1,000 nanometers, can enter plants through the roots. Microplastics have also been found on the surface of a wide variety of fruits and vegetables.
One from 2020 concluded that apples and carrots were the most contaminated and the least contaminated lettuce. However, microplastic contamination remains relatively small compared to more highly processed foods.
While we don’t yet know what the effects of microplastics are, we do know that antioxidants in fruits and vegetables, such as anthocyanins — which give fruits and vegetables their red, blue and purple colors — keep people healthy, so you must continue to consume them.
4. Tea and coffee
Tea bags are not the only source of microplastics in hot drinks. To the tea leaves, coffee and milk can also be contaminated with microplastics.
The use of disposable cups to-go, covered with plastic, is one of the biggest sources of microplastic contamination in hot drinks. High temperatures can cause microplastics to release from the container into the drink.
Hot drinks contain more microplastics than their cold counterparts, so switching to a cold drink can reduce your exposure.
It was also demonstrated that buy milk in glass bottles results in a lower load of microplastics.
However, this does not apply to all drinks. A study on bottled beverages demonstrated that soft drinks and beer stored in glass bottles had aSuperior microplastic contamination that of plastic bottles, possibly due to contamination from painted metal lids.
There are some truly plastic-free tea bags — they use cotton instead of biodegradable plastics to seal the bags. Identifying these brands, however, can be complicated, as there is no standardized approach to labeling and not all companies are transparent about the composition of their product.
Generally speaking, switching to loose leaf tea and using reusable metal or glass cups are good strategies for reducing microplastic contamination.
5. Seafood
While studies have shown that most seafood is contaminated with microplastics, what is perhaps most surprising about shellfish is the amount of attention it receives compared to other food sources.
One study showed that microplastic levels in so-called “filter-feeding organisms” such as mussels were only 0.2 to 0.70 microplastic particles per gram. This is significantly lower than the 11.6 billion microplastics released when brewing a single cup of tea with a plastic tea bag.
Other measures you can take
Store food in plastic containers and consume foods highly processed They are both associated with high concentrations of microplastics in stool samples, so you can try to avoid them.
Microwave food in glass containersinstead of plastic, is also a good idea to prevent microplastics from being released into food.
Finally, although water quality varies between countries, several scientific reviews have suggested that people consume more microplastic particles from water bottled in single-use plastic bottles than from tap water.
While completely eliminating plastics from our diet may be impossible, making these substitutions helps reduce your exposure.
