You may not be aware, but we eat plastics. Research suggests that the average person may ingest up to 5 grams of plastic per week, about the weight of a credit card. Tiny piecescalled microplastics make their way into our food and drinks and ultimately into our bodies. The most common pathway is through the fish and shellfish we eat. Plastics enter our oceans and break down over time into tiny fragments andare taken up by fish. Packaging also shred microplastics into our food.
Plastics also contaminate food right in our own kitchen. That’s during food preparation and cooking. Are you using plastic chopping boards? Then you might be ingesting parts of it.Where do you think all those scratches in the chopping boards go? Plastic cutting boards can shed tiny fragments of varying shapes and sizes that can be ingested.
Are you using black spatulas, ladles and spoon when cooking? Be wary. Black plastics are more likely to contain unregulated amounts of toxic chemicals including heavy metals and flame retardants which can leach into food and pose a hazard to human health. Exposure to heat during cooking increases the danger of contamination.
According to beyondplastics.org, the black color is created by adding a substance called carbon black to the plastic. Carbon black which contains numerous compounds, some of which like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons have carcinogenic properties that have led the International Agency for Research on Cancer to classify carbon black as “possibly carcinogenic to humans.”
Here’s what makes it more dangerous. Due to the lack of recycled black plastic, the demand is often met with e-waste (discarded electronics like old computers, phones, TVs, monitors, speakers, and appliances) that contain toxic chemicals such as phthalates, flame retardants, and heavy metals such as cadmium, lead, nickel, chromium, and mercury.
Black plastic is also used in takeout containers, food trays, and children’s toys. Some takeout coffee cups, including those in my favorite coffee shop, have black lids. There are also black plastic toys. It’s dangerous when children chew on them. It might expose them to chemicals that can affect brain and reproductive system development.
A 2018 University of Plymouth study found toxic chemicals present at up to 30 times the levels considered safe in a full 40 percent of the black plastic toys, thermoses, cocktail stirrers, and utensils tested.
A 2024 study conducted by scientists from Toxic Free Future and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam published in Chemosphere found high levels of cancer-causing, hormone-disrupting flame-retardant chemicals in a variety of household products made with black plastics including food serviceware, kitchen utensils, and toys.
To limit exposure to plastics in the kitchen,choose wood or stainless-steel utensils over plastic ones. Use wooden chopping boards. Use glass, ceramic or metal storage containers. Avoid microwaving food in black plastic (and in all plastics). Avoid single-use hot cups, particularly those with black plastic sippy lids. Bring your own metal or ceramic mug instead.