Food packaged in cans, tetrapaks, plastic, regenerated cellulose film and cartons fill the shelves in our supermarkets. The long shelf life of these products allows us to keep good stocks. Little known is that from some packaging, undesirable substances, some of which are even toxic, can pass into the food.
Packaging may contain undesirable substances
It is impossible to imagine our daily lives without packaged foods. They offer many advantages in our environment, which is characterized by time constraints and hectic, because they:
- Are well suited for stockpiling
- Are quickly at hand on the shelves
- Offer desired portion sizes
- Are easy to transport
New packaging is constantly being developed, which is particularly user-friendly and facilitates the handling of products. Accordingly, the use of new technologies and raw materials is also needed. Unfortunately, for some of these raw materials is still completely unknown what effects they have on our health. In most cases, we absorb undesirable substances that enter the food via the packaging only in very small quantities, which are generally harmless to health. Nevertheless, some reaches into the food shelf should not remain unreflective.
Wrapped in plastic
Whether it is sausage or cheese, sweets, bread or fruit, we can get almost all food products wrapped in foil or plastic. A variety of plastics are used in the food sector. These include, for example, polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene and rigid PVC. In the form of films, blisters and other forms of packaging, our food products are wrapped in plastics. Time and again, there are reports that substances from the plastics can pass into the food. Some of these are undesirable toxic substances. The following packaging materials are to be seen particularly critically:
- Vinyl chloride
- Epoxidized soybean oil (ESBO)
- Tin
- BADGE (bisphenol A diglycidyl ether)
- Phthalic acid esters (phthalates)
- FTOH (fluorotelomer alcohols)
Below you will find the effects of the various substances explained in detail.
Vinyl chloride
Vinyl chloride is the starting material for the production of PVC (polyvinyl chloride), which is used as a protective coating in coated packaging for food as well as films and laminates. Vinyl chloride is suspected of having a weakly mutagenic, cancer-promoting effect. It is said to promote liver sarcomas in particular, since toxins are predominantly processed in the liver. However, there are currently no reliable findings that point to a cancer-causing potency. Nevertheless, for precautionary reasons, the transition to food must not be detectable for this substance.
Epoxidized soybean oil (ESBO).
ESBO is used as a vegetable plasticizer and stabilizer for PVC, especially in lid sealants and drawing films. In lids of canned and glass foods, it can make up as much as 40 percent of the sealant. The decisive factor for ESBO transfer into the food is direct contact with the food and its fat content. Large amounts of ESBO can transfer into foods with high oil content, such as pesto, olive paste and vegetables preserved in oil. In early 2005, ESBO was detected in numerous foods packaged in screw-top jars, including infant foods. To date, there are insufficient data to assess the health significance of ESBO to humans. However, there is evidence that toxicity exists with repeated exposure to ESBO. The acceptable daily intake level has been set at 1 mg per kg body weight. Because the daily intake limit for infants is much lower and, for example, jarred baby food could contain ESBO, there is currently discussion about setting a maximum level of detectable ESBO in food packaging.
Tin
Be it vegetables, fruit or fish, the good old tin can has its permanent place on the food shelf. It has long been known that tin cans can transfer tin into the can contents when exposed to air. Tin is a heavy metal that is relatively non-toxic. However, ingestion of larger amounts can cause diarrhea and vomiting. Food from tin-plated tinplate cans should therefore be processed quickly and leftovers transferred to another container.However, the risk of ingesting high concentrations of tin is generally very low, as German manufacturers predominantly use tin cans with an internal coating or varnish.
BADGE (bisphenol-A diglycidyl ether).
But coatings and lacquers can also contain undesirable substances, such as BADGE (bisphenol-A-diglycidyl ether). BADGE is a plasticizer that can be released from the interior coatings of food cans to the contents. In investigations in Switzerland and Germany, for example, high levels were found in the oil glaze of canned fish and in cans with a tear-off lid. Presumably, the plasticizer is used to achieve optimum flexibility of the coating. BADGE is suspected of altering the hormone balance in humans through an antiandrogenic effect. An originally assumed cancer risk or health hazard has not yet been confirmed. Nevertheless, a limit of 1 mg per kg of food has been set by the European Commission.
Phthalic acid esters (phthalates).
Phthalates are used as plasticizers for PVC, polystyrene and other plastics. They are added to the materials to optimize their stretchability and processability. The most common phthalate is DEHP (di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate). Phthalates have not yet been extensively studied and evaluated toxicologically. They probably interfere with the hormone balance of humans through a weak estrogen-like effect and thus affect the development of the sex organs. They are also suspected of promoting diabetes in men. Since its regulation in 2015, however, DEHP is only found in medical packaging, and the substance should no longer be detected in food packaging. Instead of DEHP, which is presumably hazardous to health, only DINP (di-isononyl phthalate) is now used there, which is supposed to be less of a concern. As a rule, however, the quantities of phthalates that we ingest through the environment or in food are so small that the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment has assessed the health risk as very low. Only 1.5 percent of toddlers examined in one study were found to have elevated levels of phthalates in their bodies, which were likely linked to prolonged oral contact with plastic toys.
Food in cardboard boxes
Pizza and hamburgers are available as fast food on every corner. The cardboard box comes with it, of course, to ensure that the food arrives home in one piece. To prevent cardboard boxes and papers from softening during use, they are often coated with perfluorochemicals because they are grease- and water-repellent. Studies have found that perfluorochemicals may contain FTOH (fluorotelomer alcohols) as an impurity. These are suspected of transferring to the food and thus entering the human body, where the substance can accumulate due to the slow rate of degradation. So far, little is known about the health risk for the consumer. However, based on results from animal studies, the substance is classified as critical.
How can we protect ourselves?
To protect consumers, the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) sets maximum levels and limits for substances of health concern. In addition, research is conducted in the field of food safety with the aim, among others, of developing new technologies for the production of food and packaging that ensure a high level of safety for the consumer while maintaining the same level of efficiency. Particularly in the case of critical products, such as fatty foods and baby foods in jars with screw caps, many manufacturers have already reacted by dispensing with these substances of concern. But consumers’ critical purchasing behavior is also called for.
5 Tips for avoiding harmful substances in packaging
In almost all conventional packaging can be processed traces of substances that volatilize into the environment, on our commodities and on food. Sustained damage to health or increased carcinogenicity has not been clearly demonstrated for most substances. However, the fact that ingesting these substances in large quantities is not healthy remains undisputed. Anyone who avoids goods wrapped in plastic as much as possible need not worry about possible poisoning. To avoid phthalates and Co. in everyday life, we have compiled these 5 tips:
- Prefer products with alternative packaging made of glass and paper.
- Resort more often to the so-called “loose goods”. Buy, for example, in the bakery, at the sausage and cheese counter or at the fruit and vegetable stand unpackaged goods.
- Whenever possible, prepare food fresh and avoid packaged convenience foods and frozen foods.
- Pay attention to their packaging, especially with fatty foods.
- Pack shrink-wrapped food at home right away in glass containers and the like.
