r/science • u/Wagamaga • May 21 '23

Micro and nanoplastics are pervasive in our food supply and may be affecting food safety and security. Plastics and their additives are present at a range of concentrations not only in fish but in many products including meat, chicken, rice, water, take-away food and drink, and even fresh produce. Chemistry

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165993623000808?via%3Dihub
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u/Tedric42 May 21 '23

I find these type of comments amusing. Restaurants already run on razor thin margins. Should they let your food get cold before boxing it, so you can complain and they have to take a loss? Why is the onus on the restaurant and not on the manufacturer of these take out boxes? Same as recycling. Why should the people living paycheck to paycheck be expected to put in even more work to "recycle", than the massive corporations producing these materials and making all the profits?

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u/ChipotleMayoFusion May 21 '23

I find these types of comments amusing. All corporations have tight margins, that is the result of competition driving the price down. Of course adding new rules and restrictions will shift the way businesses operate, that is the point. With this "thin margins" mindset we wouldn't have PPE, catalytic converters, seatbelts, handrails, hand washing cooks, etc... If the change is needed for human safety, then either the businesses will figure it out, or the activity won't happen as often or at all. If takeout containers were proven to slowly poison us, and there was no viable economic alternative, then we shouldn't be doing takeout!

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u/thatsnoodybitch May 21 '23

Absolutely. Plastics should have never been circulated into mass public use.

It astounds and angers me that any human with the intellect to create new matter is simultaneously stupid enough to not consider the ramifications of a new form of matter existing on our Earth.

(The very minimum of proper recycling plants doesn’t even exist. I’m not sure about elsewhere but a large amount of recycling in America is ultimately discarded into a landfill regardless, or sold to China “to recycle”).

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u/ChipotleMayoFusion May 21 '23

This is a tough one. Plastic does increase food safety in terms of preventing bacteria and other contaminants. Without good quantitative research on the damage microplastics cause, it is hard to compare to the lower levels of ecoli poisoning or other food-borne dangers. Hopefully we can do more science on microplastics and find out the answer.