Microplastics shed by food packaging are contaminating our food, study finds

Previous discussion:

Plasticlist Report – Data on plastic chemicals in Bay Area foods https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42525633 - Feb 2025 (200 comments)

And another discussion for the same link is currently underway on the front page: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44366548

p.s. thank you, what a terrific resource

How microwaving can decrease the amount of microplastics? Any link for an explanation?

This is interesting -- it does put into context some of what was hyped up recently in the news, for example, the Fairlife Core Power microplastics. While it is higher in Core Plastics, it's not off by an order of magnitudes compared with other milk products.

The other question I have -- what does someone who consumes very little microplastics look like? Increased lifespan, decreased risk of cancer (by how much), does it have lead-like outcomes, etc... Avoiding microplastics seems like a lot of inconvenience (at least for an individual) -- I'd want to make sure the payoff at the end is worth it.

I don't think so, plastic wrapping is a massive boost for keeping food hygienic in transport and both to avoid waste and reduce pathogen contamination. Probably a much bigger benefit than the microplastic contamination.

It might be they will be like "shame they didn't have this awesome new material that has 0 environmental/health impact that we have today" though.

There are no clear substitutes for plastic in a lot of applications even when you disregard price.

Yes, but its going to be like the romans where their use of lead was nowhere as problematic as people like to think.

Lead is so obviously bad for that we have known it for thousands of years.

And ironically the best way to get the plastics out of our systems is blood letting. So in the future, we are the backwards ones, and the modern peoples use leeches to make themselves healthy.

They'll laugh at us for trusting any information we get from social media, too. It's the epistemological equivalent of licking the floor of a public restroom.

Do we laugh at Romans for using lead and mercury?

I'd say they did things that were harmful that they did not know they were harmful. Unless they did it in the face of clear evidence of the harm, what is there to mock?

I expect the people in 100 years from now will laugh at us for doing all of the things that we absolutely know are harming the environment right now. Perhaps they will even laugh at us for hand wringing about plastics on the possibility that they might be harmful while doing next to nothing about the things we do actually have evidence for,

Are... you under the impression that people who actually study history mock the Romans for their... use of lead? You need to read more actual sources than the hindustanitimes.com listicles if you're coming to this impression.

Like asbestos? Oh nevermind... that's legal again

There are a few options but they are pretty radical departures. There are a few grocery stores, typically natural food co-op type places in the US, that will have no packaging. These places you weigh out your peanuts and put them into your own bag, or they might have burlap or similar. The issue is more when you get into wet things. Meat, cheese, etc. these can be wrapped in wax paper. But thats not going to work if you have a central butcher factory.

I think about this a lot actually. I grew up with glass milk bottles and paper meat packaging.

Even being able to estimate this is incredibly far outside of my expertise or knowledge, but I suspect for most products plastic is only cheaper because the externalities are not factored into the price. It seems totally possible to me that for a lot of things glass packaging would be cheaper than plastic if plastic were priced appropriately.

Other things I'm not sure. We could probably approach it differently, using different plastics and requiring re-use. It would be interesting to hear a genuine packaging expert's opinion on the balance point here, I doubt it's truly zero plastic for food. But maybe.

FWIW I think any non-glass non-plastic food packaging is also actually plastic. Paperboard and aluminum & steel cans all have plastic linings at least. I think almost exactly everything does these days. Glass being the one exception still.

There are many sustainable alternatives to plastics for perishables.

Which are most cost effective?

Who pays for The Ocean Cleanup, for example? That's an external cost.

You're omitting the fact that cotton and other non-plastic fibers do exist and are a valid clothing choice in many circumstances.

Fabric fibers get into the bloodstream through inhalation, based on recent studies I've seen (feel free to challenge if this isn't settled science).

This seems to make that cheap polyester shirt infinitely more of a risk origin than some cereal with microplastics.

Thanks, good insight. Reminds me of people wanting to save CO2 and then do the silliest thing but ignore the big chunks.

Can you share a good source with some details on where the bulk of microplastic exposure comes from?

That's how you could break down macroplastics into microplastics but how would those bugs digest the microplastics? And how do you achieve that without breaking down plastics you don't want to be broken down - after all, durability is the main reason plastics are used everywhere.

While such things are actually already possible as of now, there are always forces opposed to overall progress in health. You can probably guess who will not like it. So people need to become more clever/savvy in terms of how to implement such strategies without getting shot down in the process.

there are some bacteria that can process it but they are rare and not very quick at doing it. I don't think that's a solution.

Problem is they'd probably also start consuming macroplastics, and every plastic thing we use would degrade.

Then it evolves starts eating everything ahhh horror movie plot

I’d be surprised if there weren’t microplastics in the veggies I’m growing in my organic backyard garden. They are in the water and since uptake by plants has been shown[0] I’d assume they are basically unavoidably at this point. Of course limiting consumption is a goal so avoiding the industrial food system and eating mostly things at the bottom of the food chain are good ways to do that.

0: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10966681/

There's no escaping it. Every bag of store-bought soil I've used as a hobbyist over the past couple of years contained visible plastic scraps and who knows how many microplastics.

Learned helplessness. What can we actually do about it?

Not to mention the use of plastic sheets to cover rows.

Well, people have never lived longer and basically starvation and even hunger for many people has been eliminated. People are far more likely to get sick from eating too much and acquiring a disease than they are from any of the things you’ve mentioned.

Everything is a tradeoff I guess. The question is if this is a good one and if so how can we make it a better one. Alarmism is going to fall on deaf ears when the reality isn’t as bleak.

>partially digested micro plastics

I'd imagine they come out in essentially the same condition they go in. :)

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>plants grow in the dirt and risk having insects crawling all over them

Non-sequitor.

>And the sheer number of lifestyle diseases people have.

Red herring. Other peoples' diabetes or obesity doesn't really impact me. Plastic has contaminated water and soil, it's not possible to opt out of the consequences of others using it even if you do not use it yourself.

>I've heard it said

Must be true!

A lemon ... some metal ... Voom! Power!

Must be all that uranium in the lemons too.

> plants grow in the dirt

and water is wet. What is your point?

I saw that a while back. Probably the most terrifying video I have ever seen.

Also how willing people were to go along with covering up the danger. Not just businesses and politicians, but ordinary people in a company town.