MonicaWhat are some of the main foods that contain microplastics?
Plastic pollution is a growing problem and more & more people are learning about it. However, there are still a lot of people out there who may not fully understand (and therefore care) the impacts that plastics can have on our planet on a larger scale. By affecting the planet on a larger scale, it also affects us, our everyday life, our health & the health of our loved ones.
We are all connected. In everything that we do, consume, use….wherever in the world we are, we have a connection with Planet Earth.
Plastics have entered our food chain and get into our bodies every day. Here are some examples for you.
- Teabags: Your daily cup of tea can contain billions of microscopic plastic particles. A study showed that soaking one teabag released approximately 11.6 billion microplastics!
- Chewing gums: Derives from butadiene-based synthetic rubber, a polymer (plastic) made from oil, a bit like what it used to make car tyres. 100,000 tons of chewing gum are being thrown into the environment every year, contributing to global plastic pollution.
- Sea salt: A 2018 study, showed that 90% of the table salt brands sampled worldwide contain microplastics.
- Canned food: The BPA used as a lining in your canned food is absorbed by the food itself and rinsing the food makes little or no difference in relation to that factor.
- Coffee cup: BPAs are released in hot liquids. Disposable paper cups are made of 90–95% paper, and the remaining 5–10% of Polythylene (plastic) layer. A recent study has shown that if you were to drink 3 cups of coffee, you would be ingesting 75,000 micron-size microplastics.
- Bottled water: 93% of 11 bottled water brands (from 9 countries) sampled have been shown to contain plastics that leek into the water from the bottle itself. Learn more about this here.
- Seafood: Bad news for all the seafood lovers out there. Consuming fish means consuming microplastics and a lot of other chemicals yourself. (Click here to learn how plastics are getting into our food web).
I hope that after reading this small list, some of you may take extra care of what you are consuming or the packaging your food comes in. Make those extra small choices and you will have a huge impact on yourself and our planet.
As I always say: Doing something is always better than doing nothing.
