CHENNAI: The next time you sit for a meal, instead of counting the calories in it, try counting the microplastics. These tiny plastic particles have become so pervasive that they can be found just about anywhere — in our lungs, heart, and even in the breast milk fed to a newborn. Food is one of the means through which they enter our bodies.
Now, a study has found all Indian salt and sugar brands, big or small, packaged or unpackaged, contain microplastics. It doesn’t matter whether you shop online or at the local grocery store, the sugar and salt sitting in your kitchen is loaded with tiny plastic particles that, when consumed over a long period, could pose serious health risks.
The study, titled “Microplastics in Salt and Sugar” conducted by the environmental research organisation Toxics Link, tested 10 types of salt — including table salt, rock salt, sea salt and local raw salt — and five types of sugar purchased from both online and local markets.
The study revealed the presence of microplastics in all salt and sugar samples, in various forms, including fibre, pellets, films and fragments. The size of these microplastics ranged from 0.1 mm to 5 mm. Salt and sugar are among the most commonly consumed food items. An average Indian is estimated to consume 10.98 grams of salt and around 10 spoons of sugar every day. This translates to over 4 kg of salt and 18 kg of sugar every year.
The Toxics Link study found that the concentration of microplastics in the salt samples ranged from 6.71 to 89.15 pieces per kg of dry weight. In sugar samples, the concentration of microplastics ranged from 11.85 to 68.25 pieces per kg. “Since humans consume food products containing salt and sugar throughout their lives, the intake of MPs (microplastics) is also expected to be substantial,” the researchers wrote.
Going by the study, you would be slightly better off if you consume organic sugar or organic rock salt as they have a lesser concentration of plastic particles. Packed iodised salt, which undergoes substantially more processing than unrefined salt, was found to be more contaminated than the rest, indicating that processing and packing could be the areas that need to be looked upon as sources of microplastic contamination.
“Facilities that process and package iodised salt might not exclusively be dedicated to salt and could handle other materials that contribute to microplastic contamination,” the report said. “Our study’s finding of substantial amounts of microplastics in all salt and sugar samples is concerning and calls for urgent, comprehensive research into the long-term health impacts of microplastics on human health,”
Toxics Link associate director Satish Sinha said. A study done by researchers at the Water Research Institute-Italian National Research Council and published in the International Journal of Environment Research and Public Health in 2020 found microplastics and their chemicals can interfere with hormone receptors and lead to endocrine disruption in humans.