Currently browsing posts about: Plastics

I’ve been collecting items on microplastics, for which research is finding increasing evidence for harm to human and environmental health.  Here are some relatively recent examples of what’s out there on this topic.

NOTE:  Today and Tomorrow: NIH is holding a hybrid Workshop on Micro[nano]plastic Measurement for Population Studies: link to registration is here.

Should we be worried about microplastics?  

• How big a problem are microplastics? The first global study of its kind quantifies the problem in the food and drink industry… Read more
• Microplastics and plastic bottles: How worried should we be?  The issue of microplastics and nanoplastics are increasingly coming into consumer consciousness… Read more

How do microplastics get into food?

• Research: Ultra-processed foods are a key driver of the global plastics pollution crisis: Rob Ralston, Katherine Sievert, Kim Anastasiou, Joe Yates & Jennifer Clapp. Comment | 09 April 2026 Nature Food 7 | doi:10.1038/s43016-026-01341-0.
• Microplastics are ‘widespread’ in cheese: here’s how this happens: Cheese is ripe in microplastics, a groundbreaking study revealed… Read more
• BBC News: Study Identifies Microplastics in Majority of Commercial Pet Foods: Researchers at the universities of Sussex and Exeter found microplastics in 16 of 19 pet food brands, with higher exposure linked to feeding patterns. The findings highlight potential food system contamination and prompt calls for regulatory testing. Read More

What’s needed?

• Food and Water Watch: 250+ Health Professionals Call on EPA to Monitor Microplastics in Drinking Water:  Over two hundred and fifty doctors, nurses and other health care and public health professionals and organizations sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) urging the agency to add microplastics to the Sixth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 6) and monitor for these contaminants in our drinking water.
• IFT’s Food Technology Magazine:  Can Food Packaging Go Plastic-Free? The authors detail the environmental drivers, emerging materials, and research priorities shaping the transition from fossil-derived plastics to bio-based and circular solutions for food packaging. Read More
• Beverage Daily: 6 ways to keep microplastics out of food and drink: Microplastic contamination poses significant risks for consumers… Read more

And what is the EPA doing about this?  Nothing, alas.

• EPA Fails to Take Meaningful Action on Microplastics: Food & Water Watch condemns EPA for failing to include microplastics in proposed drinking water monitoring program. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released a draft of the Sixth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 6), which sets forth which contaminants the agency will require monitoring for in drinking water. The draft rule shows that EPA does not plan to require monitoring for microplastics over the next five years.

Yes, I know baby food pouches are convenient and let babies feed themselves without making a mess.

But I can think of so many reasons not to use them.  Baby food pouches:

• Contain foods that are generally too sweet.
• Contain homogenious textures.
• Do not teach babies about the color, taste, and texture of real foods.
• Do not promote small motor skills.
• Undermine baby-led weaning (exploring real foods).

Now here is one more reason to avoid them: microplastics.

Greenpeace has measured microplastics in Gerber baby food pouches.  As the press release says,

A new investigation commissioned by Greenpeace International has found microplastics in every baby food pouch it tested, and estimates that a single Gerber pouch contains more than 5,000 microplastic particles and more than 11,000 in a Happy Baby Organics pouch. The study traced the likely source to the plastic lining of the pouches themselves.

The report, Tiny Plastics, Big Problem: The Hidden Health Risks of Baby Food Plastic Pouches, and an accompanying technical report, reveal:

• Researchers found up to 270 microplastic particles per teaspoon in Gerber pouches and up to 495 microplastic particles per teaspoon in Happy Baby Organics.
• The study found at least one endocrine disrupting chemical in the packaging and the food.
• The research suggests a link between polyethylene, the plastic lining the pouches, and some of the microplastics found in the baby food.

Greenpeace USA is calling on baby food companies to use packaging that will be safer for babies.  Sounds like a good idea.

This gives me an excuse to share what I’ve collected recently about microplastics.

• Microplastics and plastic bottles: How worried should we be?  The issue of microplastics and nanoplastics are increasingly coming into consumer consciousness… Read more
• How big a problem are microplastics?  The first global study of its kind quantifies the problem in the food and drink industry… Read more
• Microplastics are ‘widespread’ in cheese: here’s how this happens: Cheese is ripe in microplastics, a groundbreaking study revealed… Read more
• Ultra-processed foods are a key driver of the global plastics pollution crisis:  Rob Ralston, Katherine Sievert, Kim Anastasiou, Joe Yates & Jennifer Clapp.  Nature Food, 2006 doi:10.1038/s43016-026-01341-0.
• Can Food Packaging Go Plastic-Free?  The authors detail the environmental drivers, emerging materials, and research priorities shaping the transition from fossil-derived plastics to bio-based and circular solutions for food packaging. Read More
• Food & Water Watch:  250+ Health Professionals Call on EPA to Monitor Microplastics in Drinking Water.  Today, over two hundred and fifty doctors, nurses and other health care and public health professionals and organizations sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) urging the agency to add microplastics to the Sixth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 6) and monitor for these contaminants in our drinking water.

Comment

As I see it, this issue has reached an action level.

• Do what you can to avoid buying food and drinks in plastic containers.
• Don’t let babies eat from plastic containers.
• Let companies know you want them to use safer containers.
• Applaud companies that change their packaging.

EPA, HHS Announce Historic Actions to Protect Americans from Microplastics and Safeguard Drinking Water

[EPA] For the first time in the program’s history, EPA is including microplastics as a priority contaminant group in its draft Sixth Contaminant Candidate List (CCL 6), now open for public comment. CCL 6 also includes pharmaceuticals as a group—another first—along with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), disinfection byproducts, 75 individual chemicals, and nine microbes that may be present in public drinking water systems.

[HHS] Additionally, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) announced the launch of STOMP—Systematic Targeting of Microplastics—a first-of-its-kind nationwide initiative to build a comprehensive toolbox for measuring, researching, and removing microplastics and nanoplastics (MNPs) from the human body. STOMP takes a three-pronged approach:

• Measure: Deploy gold-standard detection technology to accurately quantify microplastics levels in water and human tissue.
• Target: Identify the most harmful plastic contaminants and determine how they enter and move through the body.
• Remove: Develop and validate methods to eliminate microplastics from the human body.

This is a win for MAHA (Make America Healthy Again):

RFK Jr has been pushing for this.  He says “Animal studies show that microplastic exposure can drive inflammation, cardiovascular damage, impaired cognition, and tumor growth.”

Human studies show this too.  Here’s the latest, which correlates pre-term births to chemicals in plastics.

RJK Jr also said the $144 million national program will be called STOMP, which stands for “Systemic Targeting of MicroPlastics.” The program will bring toxicologists, data scientists and other experts together to create standardized tools capable of detecting and quantifying microplastics in the human body, research the effect they have on humans, and develop targeted strategies to remove them from the body.

This could be a good step forward if they actually act on it.  We shall see.

Eileen M. Duffy, Publisher and editor of Edible Port City (Wilmington NC) sent me this announcement:  Kimchi probiotic promotes the excretion of nanoplastics from the gut.

Experiments have confirmed that lactic acid bacteria isolated from kimchi can bind with intestinal microplastics and promote their excretion from the body. In an animal study, the amount of plastic detected in feces more than doubled.

I went right to the reference:

Efficient biosorption of nanoplastics by food-derived lactic acid bacterium.  Bioresource Technology Volume 447, May 2026, 134234.  doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2026.134234

Guess who paid for this?

Acknowledgements: This research was supported by the World Institute of Kimchi.

Declaration of competing interest: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Comment

I’m always amused that authors do not view research support as a source of competing interests.  They should.  Research funding is so well established to influence how research is designed and interpreted that it has its own name: The Funding Effect.

But this study breaks new ground.  Microplastics are a huge issue right now since we are all loaded with them and have no idea how harmful they might be.

Kimchi, like other fermented foods, promotes a healthy microbiome.  Wouldn’t it be fabulous if eating it not only was good for us but also helped get rid of microplastics.  This study compared the effects of two kinds of bacteria derived from kimchi; one kind did better at getting microplastics excreted from the intestines of germ-free mice.

It’s a big jump from that to doing something similar in human intestines.

But if you want to use this as an excuse to up your kimchi intake, go for it.  I’m all for eating more kimchi.

If you haven’t been worried about microplastics in your body, perhaps this study will get your attention.

Here’s the abstract:

Its alarming conclusion:

The detection of MPs in penile tissue raises inquiries on the ramifications of environmental pollutants on sexual health.
Our research adds a key dimension to the discussion on man-made pollutants, focusing on MPs in the male reproductive system.

Everyone is worried about the decline in male sperm counts.  Could endocrine disrupting plastics be a cause?  If so, it’s time to get serious about cleaning them up and not producing more.

Here’s something I haven’t yet written about but I’m seeing so much on the topic that it’s due.

Microplastics are small (5 millimeters and much, much smaller) particles that come off of plastic containers, wrappings, and waste.  They are now everywhere and in everything, including oceans, water supplies, food, animals, and us.

Not nearly enough is known about their effects, but early signs are not reassuring.

Some examples:

Bottled water can contain thousands of particles of nanoplastics, research suggests:  Microplastics, which research suggests could be harmful to human health, are well-known infiltrators of a wide variety of food and beverages. Now, researchers have found that nanoplastics, the even smaller offspring of microplastics, are present in stratospheric quantities in bottled water, unbeknownst to us until now…. Read more

Plastic chemicals linked to $249 billion in US health care costs in 2018 alone, study finds: By contributing to the development of chronic disease and death, a group of hormone-disruptive plastic chemicals is costing the US health care system billions — over $249 billion in 2018 alone, a new study found.

Should We Care That We’re Drinking Nanoplastics? A new study this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science tells us that every bottle of water we’re drinking has hundreds of thousands of nanoplastics….Nanoplastics and microplastics are not innocuous, but their risks are poorly understood. They come with chemicals that can be endocrine disruptors and contribute to obesity.

How Plastic Can Harm Your Health: Plastic is everywhere—even in the foods we eat and the beverages we drink. CR’s [Consumer Reports’] recent tests of nearly 100 foods found two types of chemicals used in plastic, bisphenols and phthalates, in a wide variety of packaged foods.

Everything you need to know about plastic pollution:This year’s World Environment Day – the fiftieth iteration of the annual celebration of the planet – is focusing on the plastic pollution crisis. The reason? Humanity produces more than 430 million tonnes of plastic annually, two-thirds of which are short-lived products that soon become waste, filling the ocean and, often, working their way into the human food chain.

Plastic food packaging contains harmful endocrine disrupting chemicals, study confirms: Many plastic food contact materials – plastics that are used in the processing and packaging of food – contain toxic chemicals that disrupt the endocrine system and metabolism, according to a new study published in Environmental Science & Technology.

Microplastics: In January 2019, ECHA [European Chemicals Agency] proposed a wide-ranging restriction on microplastics in products placed on the EU/EEA market to avoid or reduce their release to the environment. A consultation on the restriction proposal was organised from March to September 2019….The proposal is expected to prevent the release of 500 000 tonnes of microplastics over 20 years.

Comment: We should be looking hard at similar restrictions and at methods for reducing use of plastics and phasing them out. This won’t be easy, as discussed in: Microplastic regulation should be more precise to incentivize both innovation and environmental safety.  Is this one more food issue we need to be worried about?  I think it is.

This is not just about plastic particles in soil and in the ocean.  It’s about microplastics in us.

See:  Discovery and quantification of plastic particle pollution in human blood. 

Plastic particles are ubiquitous pollutants in the living environment and food chain but no study to date has reported on the internal exposure of plastic particles in human blood. …In this study of a small set of donors, the mean of the sum quantifiable concentration of plastic particles in blood was 1.6 µg/ml, showing a first measurement of the mass concentration of the polymeric component of plastic in human blood.

As for plastics in the environment, a news release from the FAO announced a new report: “Assessment of agricultural plastics and their sustainability: a call for action.”

According to data collated by the agency’s experts, agricultural value chains each year use 12.5 million tonnes of plastic products. A further 37.3 million tonnes are used in food packaging. The crop production and livestock sectors were found to be the largest users, accounting for 10.2 million tonnes per year collectively, followed by fisheries and aquaculture with 2.1 million tonnes, and forestry with 0.2 million tonnes.

According to the report, the benefits of plantics are enormous—and that’s a big part of the problem.

In agriculture, plastic products greatly help productivity. Mulch films, for instance, are used to cover the soil to reduce weed growth, the need for pesticides, fertilizer and irrigation; tunnel and greenhouse films and nets protect and boost plant growth, extend cropping seasons and increase yields; coatings on fertilizers, pesticides and seeds control the rate of release of chemicals or improve germination; tree guards protect young seedlings and saplings against damage by animals and provide a microclimate that enhances growth.

Moreover, plastic products help reduce food losses and waste, and maintain its nutritional qualities throughout a myriad of value chains, thereby improving food security and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

OK, but how do you get rid of them?

The effects of large plastic items on marine fauna have been well documented. However, as these plastics begin to disintegrate and degrade, their impacts begin to be exerted at the cellular level, affecting not only individual organisms but also, potentially, entire ecosystems.

Microplastics (plastics less than 5 mm in size) are thought to present specific risks to animal health, but recent studies have detected traces of microplastic particles in human faeces and placentas. There is also evidence of mother-to-foetus transmission of much smaller nanoplastics in rats.

The report recommends the 6R model (Refuse, Redesign, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Recover).  Good luck with that one.

Commentary

• Here’s my previous post on the plastics issue.
• And here is Civil Eats’ comment on the report: “Ocean Plastic Is Bad, but Soil Plastic Pollution May Be Worse“

Last week, I ran across three items related to plastics in our food system.  The big issues: waste, pollution, and harmful chemicals.

(1) Fortunately, Civil Eats has done all the work and produced this must-read compendium of articles.

Of all the issues we cover, one in particular has all of us at Civil Eats deeply concerned: the widespread overuse of plastic in food and agriculture. From the myth of recycling and the millions of tons of plastic in the oceans, to the abundance of “forever chemicals” and microplastics making their way into our food and our soil, plastics are contaminating the food chain, polluting the environment, and making us sick. And while there are important ways individuals can address the problem, they often feel like a drop in the bucket when compared to the ways industry is shaping the narrative, increasing the amount of plastic being produced, and stalling or opposing regulation.

First Look: The Future of Plastic-Free Grocery Shopping

The Follow-Up

• The End of the Line for PFAS?
• Sustainable Dairy: Packaging, the Final Frontier
• Emerging Research on Microplastics in Soil

The Check-In: A Conversation with the Peak Plastic Foundation

A Roadmap to Plastic-Free Grocery Shopping

What We’re Reading

(2) I also ran across this notice from Food Dive:  “Coca-Cola, Unilever among top plastic polluters, report says.”  This excellent summary refers to The #BrandAudit2021Report from the group, Break Free From Plastic.

The report points out that this is the fourth year in a row Coca-Cola is the #1 plastic polluter.  Here are the report’s top ten.

(3)  Phthlates.  In her Technically Food newsletter, Larissa Zimberoff talks about potentially harmful chemicals that leach into food from plastics, particularly plastic gloves.

The study found that pthalates (an industrial chemical) were found in food samples taken from chains including McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and Chipotle. These included DnBP, which has been linked to a heightened risk for asthma, and DEHP, which has been linked to an increased risk of reproductive problems. Other problems: disruption to the endocrine system (yes, that’s where diabetes comes from) and behavioral disorders in children…The main source of pthalates in food are the ubiquitous plastic gloves worn in food handling, but also in packaging and processing equipment. 

And a new study looks at phthlates in fast food.  Here’s what the Washington Post says about it:

A new study out Tuesday reportsthat far too often, small amounts of industrial chemicals called phthalates (pronounced THA-lates), which are used to make plastics soft, have been found in samples of food from popular outlets including McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and Chipotle….The study found harmful chemicals in a majority of samples collected. Phthalates are linked to health problems, including disruption to the endocrine system, and fertility and reproductive problems, as well as increased risk for learning, attention and behavioral disorders in children.