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PlasticList – Plastic Levels in Foods

(www.plasticlist.org)
450 points homebrewer | 11 comments | 24 Jun 25 14:18 UTC | HN request time: 0.006s | source | bottom
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dredmorbius ◴[24 Jun 25 15:42 UTC] No.44367435[source]▶
One class of items not listed here, which I'd recently started to think might be less-than-optimal: pepper sold in jars with built-in, plastic, grinders.

I'd long since noted that as the jar emptied the grinders were increasingly ineffective. Thinking on why that might be ... I realised that this was because as you grind the pepper, you're also grinding plastic directly into your food.

There's surprisingly little discussion about this that I can find, though this 5 y.o. Stackexchange question addresses the concern:

<https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/103003/microplas...>

Seems to me that plastic grinders, whether disposable or sold as (apparently) durable products, are a class of products which simply shouldn't exist.

Searching, e.g., Walmart for "plastic grinders" turns up five listings presently, though it's not clear whether it's the body or the grinder itself which is plastic. In several cases it seems to be the latter.

<https://www.walmart.com/c/kp/plastic-grinders>

(Archive of current state: <https://archive.is/yIIX4>

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agotterer ◴[24 Jun 25 16:22 UTC] No.44367859[source]▶
Thanks, I hadn’t considered the plastic on the pepper grinder. Guess I’ll be looking for a new pepper grinder as I continue my pursuit of removing plastic and dangerous chemicals from the kitchen. So far the pans, tupperware, and cooking utensils have all been replaced.

While not food, another not so frequently talked about plastic exposure could be clothing dryer vents pushing materials from synthetic clothing into the air. It’s likely less of a problem than the rubber tires on our cars making their way into the air. But it was something that occurred to me while cleaning out the dryer vent this past weekend.

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johncole ◴[24 Jun 25 17:03 UTC] No.44368345[source]▶
Your biggest exposure is going to be water, hands down. What you store it in, how you filter it, these are going to be major sources of plastics and pfas.
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1. skrtskrt ◴[24 Jun 25 17:29 UTC] No.44368610[source]▶
Yes and PFAS/PFOS is now getting directly linked to rise in colorectal cancers.

Personally I would prioritize water filtering for PFAS over microplastics worries if you have limited budget to start changing consumption patterns.

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2. agotterer ◴[24 Jun 25 17:39 UTC] No.44368704[source]▶
Agreed, already on it! I put Wedell Water filters on all of our shower heads and we have a filtration system for our kitchen sink water. I’d love to get a whole home water filter at some point.
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3. j-conn ◴[24 Jun 25 17:39 UTC] No.44368713[source]▶
Any specific products you’d recommend for this?
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4. danw1979 ◴[24 Jun 25 19:19 UTC] No.44369917[source]▶
what’s the vector for microplastics in shower water causing you harm ? swallowing some of it or through the skin or something else ?
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5. moffkalast ◴[24 Jun 25 22:07 UTC] No.44371568[source]▶
Nothing says capitalism quite like a corporation polluting the entire planet with something they knew caused disease, actively gaslighted everyone involved, transferred liability to a sacrificial entity so they got zero punishment for it, and the rest of us are left to buy water filters for the rest of history if we want clean water.

3M and Dupont deserve the death penalty for it and should've been dissolved completely for crimes against humanity.

replies(1): >>44375020 #
6. agotterer ◴[25 Jun 25 00:07 UTC] No.44372382{3}[source]▶
Microplastics was only one of my concerns. Their “why” page does a good job explaining the benefits. https://weddellwater.com/pages/why-duo
7. SchemaLoad ◴[25 Jun 25 03:03 UTC] No.44373311[source]▶
Reverse osmosis is pretty much the gold standard for removing PFAS. You can get countertop units for a reasonable price. Look for the lab testing or certifications rather than random anecdotes since they appear to work fine to the end user.
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8. jajko ◴[25 Jun 25 08:50 UTC] No.44375020{3}[source]▶
If only it would be so easy to blame it all on capitalism.

I've lived in communism and it was exactly the same. Pollution beyond any reasonable levels, testing chemistry on products and people, rules and regulations coming from government and faceless bureaucrats... The result was the same, but instead of corporate greed the reason was lack of any interest and foresight.

Well regulated capitalism is probably best equipped to deal with such. Whether ours is well equipped to deal with this is another question.

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9. modo_mario ◴[25 Jun 25 09:46 UTC] No.44375381{3}[source]▶
As someone new to this how do the details work? Do you need to buy a new membrane often like I imagine? Do you have any issues with your water lacking minerals? (in the same way drinking distilled water is bad for you)
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10. andrepd ◴[25 Jun 25 10:30 UTC] No.44375662{4}[source]▶
The problem occurs whenever there aren't competent and powerful institutions working to protect the interests of the people, so indeed.

But the thing is capitalism is a tremendously powerful machine, so it's really more dangerous than an unmotivated Polish bureaucrat. The Soviets may have drained the Aral sea but capitalism has poisoned the entire planet (with TEL even before PFAS).

11. SchemaLoad ◴[25 Jun 25 22:56 UTC] No.44382564{4}[source]▶
The model I have says to replace the filter once a year, and it's $170 AUD. I imagine you could probably get away with using it longer than the OEM recommendation though.

I had the same thought about demineralised water, you can get more expensive models which remineralise the water after, but it looks like it's not actually that important health wise because you get the absolute vast majority of your minerals through food, not water. And remineralisation is mostly for taste rather than health. Though I don't find the demineralised water tastes bad, but if you're used to drinking hard water it might be different.