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Nat Friedman
@natfriedman
We did it! We tested 300 Bay Area foods for plastic chemicals. We found some interesting surprises. Top 5 findings in our test results: 1. Our tests found plastic chemicals in 86% of all foods, with phthalates in 73% of the tested products and bisphenols in 22%. It's everywhere. 2. We detected phthalates in most baby foods and prenatal vitamins. 3. Hot foods which spend 45 minutes in takeout containers have 34% higher levels of plastic chemicals than the same dishes tested directly from the restaurant. 4. The 1950s Army rations we tested contained surprisingly high levels of plastic chemicals. 5. Almost every single one of the foods we tested are within both US FDA and EU EFSA regulations. Check out our full results below.
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Nat Friedman
@natfriedman
I'm going to re-run all these tests on food we eat in California. Also going to test for other plastic chemicals. Let me know what foods we should test and suggestions for methodology. x.com/natfriedman/st…
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Noah Freedman
@FreedmanNoah
This is excellent work, and what we should expect our regulatory bodies such as the FDA to do for us. Thanks for filling the gap. Would be great to see if you can get this turned into public policy. People should have the right to know this information on the foods we eat.
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Marcelo P. Lima
@MarceloPLima
Wait, they are WITHIN US and EU regulations? So regulators are cool with everyone eating plastic? Hard to believe, unless these are amounts so small as not to matter.
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EquateAll
@Equateall
"5. Almost every single one of the foods we tested are within both US FDA and EU EFSA regulations." How are these limits set by regulatory authorities? Keep them high enough to pass regulatory tests, so that mfrs, govts have no liability for future health impacts?
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Sasha Gribov
@sgribov
Has anyone run a similar test in Europe?? Guessing it’s materially lower but would be interesting to see the apples to apples numbers.
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Nat Friedman
@natfriedman
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Nat Friedman
@natfriedman
We also compiled a list of test results from all the prior studies we could find, covering food in Canada, South Africa, USA, Spain, Taiwan, Tunisia, Belgium, China, Italy, Norway, and UK, dating back to 1989: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d
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A McWilliam
@a_mcwilliam
Could the high measurements of some the vintage products be influenced by degraded plastic packaging? Presumably this would not be an issue in canned products.
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weitu.eth
@WeiTu_
Thanks for doing this! Can you help me understand is this a similar issue with the microplastics/nanoplastics stuff? Have you considered measuring that too?
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AssemblyAI
@AssemblyAI
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Yuriy Zaremba
@yz_aisdr
Thank you for doing this. I have 2 questions: 1. Why do you think 1950 rations also have high levels of plastics? 2. What do we do now?
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Andrew Côté
@Andercot
Is it possible the coding of these two items is swapped? It shows DEHP levels as significantly lower BEFORE microwaving, but my understanding is that microwaving mobilizes plastic to leech from the packaging into the food, so should be higher AFTER microwave
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Nat Friedman
@natfriedman
We were surprised too, but saw this in a few cases. Maybe the microwave is breaking down the DEHP? Not really sure. Someone should do more extensive testing of this.
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LuckyNoelle
@luckynoelle
Have the US and EU limits changed recently? There is a tendency for gvts to move/lower the goalpost for substances they know benefit big companies vs people.
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Meow
@Adam64396134955
This makes me extremely depressed. What can we do when Nearly every food has such a high slug t of plastic chemicals.
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Nat Friedman
@natfriedman
Quote
Nat Friedman
@natfriedman
We also compiled a list of test results from all the prior studies we could find, covering food in Canada, South Africa, USA, Spain, Taiwan, Tunisia, Belgium, China, Italy, Norway, and UK, dating back to 1989: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d
4.5K
Nat Friedman
@natfriedman
Quote
Nat Friedman
@natfriedman
We also compiled a list of test results from all the prior studies we could find, covering food in Canada, South Africa, USA, Spain, Taiwan, Tunisia, Belgium, China, Italy, Norway, and UK, dating back to 1989: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d
1.4K
K M
@BayesianNuance
Clearly "plastic exposure + heat" is bad with respect to food, but I have no idea how bad. Are there any decent estimates regarding the link between plastic consumption and health consequences? (Also has anyone measured plastic in drip coffee?)
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Nikita Bier
@nikitabier
Any idea how this can be explained—considering it’s in a glass bottle? Mountain Valley tests for very low levels of contaminants. Could the minerals create false positives?
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Celt Naturals
@Celt_Naturals
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Bryan Johnson /dd
@bryan_johnson
Nat thank you for doing this. We are flying blind globally, without robust testing infrastructure and even knowledge to know how to approach this problem in cleaning up food supply chains. We now have a starting point.
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Steve Harms
@stevenharms
I also recently replaced my drip coffee maker because it is nearly impossible to find one that is all stainless steel with a percolator model. I think coffee makers are pretty high on the list for people daily
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Minh Nhat Nguyen
@menhguin
ITT > "how was X measured? Did you consider Y" > yes, we go over this in our 12,000 word section named How X Was Measured and The Considerations of Y in our report"
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Gundaddy
@YoGunDaddy
I noticed my local Starbucks makes their cold drinks with espresso that comes HOT out of the machine directly into the clear plastic cups. Then they mix with ice. There is no way that 200 degree liquid isn’t leaching plastic into the drinks.
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Keshav
@Keshav_027
Amazing! Also when you heat food items in plastic containers - the plastic % in the food increases as due to the heat Phthalates, BPA & other chemicals in the plastic containers migrate into the food at an increased rate as the chemical bonds break down rapidly. Even if
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Josh Fraser
@joshfraser
What jumps out at me is how many of the things I perceived to be the "healthier choices" (grass fed ribeye, RXbars, choosing glass bottles for water & milk) turned out to be bad or even worse.
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