Shocking Report: Plastic Chemicals Found In 86% Of Common Food Items

A couple of months ago, we found some somewhat shocking and nasty results about how many microplastics are in our water in this article on 890KDXU.com.

A new study by PlasticList and an earlier study by Consumer Reports is every bit as alarming. A huge majority of everyday foods we eat (86 percent) contain plastic chemicals.

"Our goal was to test the foods ... common items like fast food, sodas, water, milk, yogurt, produce, and snack bars," reads the report from PlasticList. "We ran a survey, received 7,500 votes for over 700 unique products, and combined those votes with suggestions from X and from our friends to make our final list.

"At least one of 18 chemicals was found in every baby food, prenatal supplement, human breast milk, yogurt, and ice cream product that we tested, to name only a few categories. We also found plastic chemicals in all the products we tested from Starbucks, Gerber, Chobani, Straus, Celsius, Blue Bottle, RXBAR, Coca-Cola, Tartine, and Ghirardelli.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continues to maintain that microplastics in foods (or water supplies) is too low to have an adverse health effect on the average American

However, the FDA has not made a statement on plastic chemicals.

A report done last year by the watchdog magazine Consumer Reports said plastic chemicals are causing serious health problems and the FDA needs to start taking a look at just how much of these chemicals are getting inside, well, us.

"There are so many ways these chemicals enter our food. We found them in all but one food (Polar raspberry lime seltzer). And the levels were much higher."

The FDA and the Environmental Protection Agency both do have limits for plastic chemicals in foods, but as PlasticList says, "the question of plastic chemical safety in food comes down largely to whether you believe those organizations have set intake limits correctly. Given how few of the foods we tested exceed publishing safety limits, the correctness of those limits is the key question in evaluating our results."

Are plastic chemicals killing us?

The FDA and EPA say no, but their track record is questionable at best.