Time to rethink food packaging for better health

“You are what you eat.”

There are different attributes to who actually said this, but a study published this week revealing more than 3 600 chemicals used in food packaging or preparation were detected in human bodies, should make you sit up and notice.

Even worse, about 100 of these chemicals are of “high concern” to human health, according to lead study author Birgit Geueke from the Food Packaging Forum Foundation.

Around 14 000 food contact chemicals – capable of “moving into food from packaging made of plastic, paper, glass, metal or other materials” – have been researched in the past.

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Some are well documented, but little is known of the impact on your health of others, according to Geueke.

She called for more research into how chemicals used in packaging end up being swallowed along with food.

Also, more care needs to be taken in packaging and preparing food, with Geueke recommending “people reduce their contact time with packaging and avoid heating up food in the packaging it came in”.

Some experts have warned against being “unduly alarmed”, but we should all heed such studies – and eat healthier.

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