The Plastic Chemicals Hiding in Our Foods and Ways to Reduce Your Exposure
February 8, 2024
Consumer Reports tested popular fast foods and supermarket staples for bisphenols and phthalates, which can be harmful to your health. Here’s what they found:
By the time you open a container of yogurt, the food has taken a long journey to reach your spoon. You may have some idea of that journey: From cow to processing to packaging to store shelves. But at each step, there is a chance for a little something extra to sneak in, a stowaway of sorts that shouldn’t be there.
That unexpected ingredient is something called a plasticizer: a chemical used to make plastic more flexible and durable. Today, plasticizers—the most common of which are called phthalates—show up inside almost all of us, right along with other chemicals found in plastic, including bisphenols such as BPA. These have been linked to a long list of health concerns, even at very low levels.
Consumer Reports has investigated bisphenols and phthalates in food and food packaging a few times over the past 25 years. In our new tests, we checked a wider variety of foods to see how much of the chemicals Americans actually consume. The answer? Quite a lot. Our tests of nearly 100 foods found that despite growing evidence of potential health threats, bisphenols and phthalates remain widespread in our food.
The findings on phthalates are particularly concerning: We found them in almost every food we tested, often at high levels. The levels did not depend on packaging type, and no one particular type of food—say, dairy products or prepared meals—was more likely than another to have them.
For example, we found high levels in, among other products, Del Monte sliced peaches, Chicken of the Sea pink salmon, Fairlife Core Power high-protein chocolate milkshakes, Yoplait Original French vanilla low-fat yogurt, and several fast foods, including Wendy’s crispy chicken nuggets, a Chipotle chicken burrito, and a Burger King Whopper with cheese. Organic products were just as problematic: In fact, the highest phthalate levels we found were in a can of Annie’s Organic cheesy ravioli.
Yet some products had much lower levels than others. A serving of Pizza Hut’s Original Cheese Pan Pizza, for example, had half the phthalate levels of a similar pizza from Little Caesars. Levels varied even among products from the same brand: Chef Boyardee Big Bowl Beefaroni pasta in meat sauce had less than half the level of the company’s Beefaroni pasta in tomato and meat sauce.
“That tells us that, as widespread as these chemicals are, there are ways to reduce how much is in our foods,” says James E. Rogers, PhD, who oversees product safety testing at CR. Read more about how CR tested foods for phthalates and bisphenols (PDF).
The trouble is, there are so many ways these chemicals enter our food.
In Your Food
Limiting exposure to phthalates isn’t as simple as avoiding particular types of packaging, because these chemicals can enter your food long before it is packaged. The best solution, says Maricel Maffini, PhD, a chemical safety expert and the author of a recent study of phthalate risks, would be for manufacturers and regulators to ensure that our food was safe, so we wouldn’t “have to make these decisions when we go to the grocery store.” But that doesn’t mean you’re powerless now.
Reducing your overall exposure to the chemicals in plastic—including bisphenols and phthalates—may help you avoid some of the risks. These six steps can help.
Avoid plastic food storage containers. If you do use them, don’t heat them in the microwave, and avoid using them to store hot food, because heat can increase leaching. You can see CR’s top picks for glass and steel food storage containers. And keep your food below the top of the container to avoid contact with the lids, which are often plastic.
Steer clear of fast foods. Plasticizers are one more reason to limit consumption of fast food. Our testing found some of the highest levels of phthalates and phthalate substitutes in fast food. Although we can’t say exactly why, one possible explanation is that fast foods are often prepared by people wearing vinyl gloves, which are known to be extremely high in these chemicals.
In Your World
Food is not the only way you’re exposed to bisphenols and phthalates, so if you want to reduce your exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals, you have to think broadly. Phthalates, for example, which are a viscous liquid in their raw form, are also a common ingredient in perfumes, cleansers, shampoos, and other cosmetics, and are sometimes used in flooring and furniture. Bisphenols and phthalates are also often found in household dust. Here are a few smart steps you can take.
Go fragrance-free. Soap, cosmetics, and cleaners with fragrances often use phthalates, especially DEP, as a solvent.
Open your windows. Because phthalates can be used in furniture, shower curtains, and flooring, they can accumulate in household dust, which you can then inhale. “Ventilation is important,” says Akhgar Ghassabian, MD, PhD, at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. “And if you’re vacuuming, make sure you do that with the window open.”
Refuse paper receipts. Go for the digital ones instead; thermal paper receipts (the ones that are a little glossy) are often coated in bisphenols.
Limit your use of vinyl. Plasticizers are generally a key ingredient in vinyl products. When possible, choose alternate materials for shower curtains, flooring, car interiors, and clothing, says Amy Ziff, the founder of Made Safe, an organization that has partnered with CR to identify potentially harmful ingredients in products. She says vinyl is sometimes called “vegan leather.”
Editor’s Note: This article also appeared in the February 2024 issue of Consumer Reports magazine.