Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Consumer Reports finds 'widespread' presence of plastics in food

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 217 posts

Re: Consumer Reports finds 'widespread' presence of plastics in food

#101

Post by taeric »

tessierashpool wrote: post #98
taeric wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All canned drinks are lined with plastics. I think all canned things, period, at this point.

nope, phthalate-free cans have been a selling point for a while now. standard for canned beans at Sprouts or Whole Foods

Ok, I'll amend by changing to "majority". :D

I'm curious what the implication in not having a lining is. If it isn't needed, why have it on the other cans? I'm assuming it has a decreased shelf life?

Edit: I'm a little confused on the reading real quick. I am seeing that most cans are now BPA free, but it seems they are still lined with a plastic?

Re: Consumer Reports finds 'widespread' presence of plastics in food

#102

Post by bthallplz »

Eisenstein wrote: post #54
looofooo wrote: post #2

What is the problem with these "plastics"?

One thing you will find about articles and comments regarding this issue is that there is always a 'we don't know' aspect if you look past the fear inducing 'it could be doing this horrible thing' stances. I try to stay up to date with scholarly research regarding microplastic dangers to humans, and so far there is no conclusive evidence that they do anything harmful to us. Just know that you are exposed to many hund…

> it would do good to focus on things you can control that are known to be harmful

Are you (or someone else) aware of any indices of how harmful various substances are and how pervasive they are? It'd be nice to know, for instance, how damaging one substance is versus another so that I can prioritize my concerns better.

- I imagine that the quantity that someone consumes or is exposed to plays a role. It'd be interesting to see an index of how easily the toxic threshold can generally be hit via conventional sources.

Re: Consumer Reports finds 'widespread' presence of plastics in food

#103

Post by forward1 »

moose44 wrote: post #78

Easy way to limit your exposure: Local, organic and unprocessed whole foods. Stop eating garbage—you'll feel better and won't have to worry about stuff like this.

That's very idyllic, but the unfortunate reality is preparing whole foods takes time which many people simply don't have. Eating processed, packaged foods is a compromise they have to make to tend to family, work or other matters. Not dissimilar from putting purchases you can't afford on a credit card, and paying the price for it down the road.

Re: Consumer Reports finds 'widespread' presence of plastics in food

#104

Post by forward1 »

simonsarris wrote: post #96
bestouff wrote: post #13

Note that they seem to only appear in processed food. That's kind of OK of you cook yourself apparently.

That's not true, they gave examples of raw meats (and how they were packed): Perdue Ground Chicken Breast (foam tray with plastic wrap) 9,985 Trader Joe’s Ground Pork 80% Lean 20% Fat (plastic wrap) 5,503 Stop & Shop Ground Beef 80% Lean 20% Fat (paperboard with plastic wrap) 2,729 And dairy: Tuscan Dairy Farms Whole Milk (plastic) 10,932 Land O’Lakes Butter Salted (paper wrap/cardboard) 581 These numbers are much lo…

> These numbers are much lower than some of the others, but they are not only in processed food.

Meat and dairy are heavily processed foods, and plastics are likely the least concerning thing about consuming them.

Re: Consumer Reports finds 'widespread' presence of plastics in food

#105

Post by Tyr42 »

TriangleEdge wrote: post #81

I'm not a chemist. Why doesn't plastic get broken down? Will there be a future where my doctor will prescribe me an enzyme or something that will breakdown the plastics in my body so they can be filtered out, or turned into energy?

Wood's cellulose was not broken down for millennia, and then live evolved ways to eat it (like mushrooms). But before then, there were piles and piles of dead trees.

I suspect plastics will be similar. Nothing has evolved to eat them, so nothing does.

Re: Consumer Reports finds 'widespread' presence of plastics in food

#106

Post by jml78 »

taeric wrote: post #95
bilsbie wrote: post #74

How much should we worry about the disposable cups they put coffee in? My understanding is we’re putting a hot liquid in a cup lined with plastic.

All canned drinks are lined with plastics. I think all canned things, period, at this point.

The only thing CR found without these chemicals was a can of seltzer.

Re: Consumer Reports finds 'widespread' presence of plastics in food

#107

Post by yesfitz »

simonsarris wrote: post #96
bestouff wrote: post #13

Note that they seem to only appear in processed food. That's kind of OK of you cook yourself apparently.

That's not true, they gave examples of raw meats (and how they were packed): Perdue Ground Chicken Breast (foam tray with plastic wrap) 9,985 Trader Joe’s Ground Pork 80% Lean 20% Fat (plastic wrap) 5,503 Stop & Shop Ground Beef 80% Lean 20% Fat (paperboard with plastic wrap) 2,729 And dairy: Tuscan Dairy Farms Whole Milk (plastic) 10,932 Land O’Lakes Butter Salted (paper wrap/cardboard) 581 These numbers are much lo…

Grinding meat, pasteurizing milk, churning cream are all processes that occur in a processing facility.

They're not "ultra-processed" or "ready to eat", but they're definitely processed foods.

Re: Consumer Reports finds 'widespread' presence of plastics in food

#109

Post by forward1 »

taeric wrote: post #101
tessierashpool wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

nope, phthalate-free cans have been a selling point for a while now. standard for canned beans at Sprouts or Whole Foods

Ok, I'll amend by changing to "majority". :D I'm curious what the implication in not having a lining is. If it isn't needed, why have it on the other cans? I'm assuming it has a decreased shelf life? Edit: I'm a little confused on the reading real quick. I am seeing that most cans are now BPA free, but it seems they are still lined with a plastic?

"BPA free" = we changed ~one chemical to avoid the disclosure requirement != it's totally safe.

Re: Consumer Reports finds 'widespread' presence of plastics in food

#110

Post by rudasn »

dp-hackernews wrote: post #46
j4yav wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there places where eating plastics is considered a normal food or food additive?

Plastic pens Plastic straws Plastic Lilly sticks Plastic tie-wraps Basically anything that someone might chew on! Although, licorice roots are okay to chew on... I guess. :-)

Pacifiers.

If these things break down in unknown/unpublished ways we're all fcked.

Post reply on HN