It's a plastic world out there.
About 460 million metric tons of the material are made each year, according to the United Nations, and some scientists are growing increasingly worried that microplastics that find their way into our bodies could be harming our health.
One way they get in? Food. And not only through food itself — though they are there — but also in the sundry tools and other items we use to prepare and store what we eat on a daily basis.
Home cooks chop into plastic cutting boards, heat up plastic containers, sauté with plastic cooking utensils, encase ingredients in plastic wrap and toss plastic detergent pods in the dishwasher — all of which are possible vectors for microplastics exposure.
"One of the most important sources of microplastics is through the food that we eat," says Tracey Woodruff, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco who studies the impact of microplastics on human health. "And it's highly likely that a lot of that comes from food contact materials."
Here's what to know about microplastics and food preparation — and what you can do if you want to purge your kitchen of the material.
Are microplastics harming humans? The science is evolving
There's still a lot we don't know about how microplastics affect humans.
The tiny particles — which range in size from roughly the width of a pencil eraser to thinner than the diameter of a strand of DNA — have been discovered in many parts of the human body, including the heart, lungs and placenta.
While some studies have indicated that animals suffer ill health effects due to the presence of microplastics, less is known about how the fragments impact us. The Food and Drug Administration says the "overall scientific evidence does not demonstrate that levels of microplastics or nanoplastics found in foods pose a risk to human health." But some early research finds possible links between health problems and the accumulation of these particles.
Susanne Brander, an ecotoxicologist at Oregon State University, told NPR in December that research showing negative health effects from microplastics exposure in animals could provide clues about what's happening to people.
"If that's happening in fish and in rodents in experiments that are being peer-reviewed and published, it's probably happening in us too," Brander said. "We just haven't demonstrated it yet."
Because research shows that humans are continuing to be exposed to microplastics, UCSF's Woodruff recommends that people should try to limit their contact with the material.
"If we wait to try and put a finer point on the science, that means that we're also continually being exposed, and that could lead to more adverse health effects, some of them which we haven't even identified yet," she said.
Want to ditch plastic kitchen tools? Here's what you can do
If you decide you want to reduce your use of plastic in the kitchen, there's plenty you can do. But don't attempt to toss every one of your plastic items immediately, says Anne-Marie Bonneau, author of The Zero-Waste Chef.
"I wouldn't suggest just taking all of your stuff and pitching it. Maybe when it breaks, replace it," Bonneau says. "Don't try to do all of this at once."
Bonneau decided to "break up" with plastics in 2011 over concerns about pollution but also came to recognize the potential health benefits of avoiding the synthetic in the kitchen.
Instead of using a plastic cutting board, she uses wooden ones. One recent study called plastic cutting boards a "potentially significant source of microplastics in human food" and found that a polyethylene chopping board could shed between 7.4 and 50.7 grams of microplastics per person per year.
Bonneau stores food in glass or metal containers and saves all her jars to reuse later. Heating plastic containers can cause millions of microplastics and billions of nanoplastic particles to be released, one study found. (Microplastics have turned up in takeout food containers, plastic water bottles, paper coffee cups and more.)
Plastic wrap is nowhere to be found in Bonneau's kitchen, which has forced her to become resourceful. "A lot of recipes for bread tell you how to make the dough, and to proof it, they'll say cover the bowl with plastic wrap," she says. "Well, you can just put a plate on top of the bowl. Or the lid of a pot."
She has cotton dish towels and reusable cloth produce bags that she brings to farmers markets and grocery stores. Bonneau also uses cellulose kitchen sponges instead of the common plastic alternatives.
Home cooks can also use stainless steel or cast-iron pots and pans rather than nonstick cookware, which is often made with PFAS, a group of chemicals that have been linked to health problems in humans.
Making the switch in a restaurant
Chef Edward Lee ditched plastic at his nonprofit restaurant Shia in Washington, D.C., to test out more sustainable business practices that could be adopted by other eateries. That means using wooden cutting boards, swapping plastic deli containers for metal and glass substitutes and replacing plastic wrap with alternatives such as parchment paper, beeswax paper, muslin and cheesecloth. The restaurant uses paper takeout containers and doesn't give diners to-go utensils, since Lee says most of them are taking their food home anyway.
But not everything was so easily replaced, such as the iconic plastic restaurant squeeze bottles that Shia has sworn off. Staff members instead store sauces in separate containers and mix vinaigrettes as they're needed. "One of the by-products of getting rid of squeeze bottles is that all our vinaigrettes are fresher, because we have to make them to order," Lee said.
There are trade-offs to cutting out plastic, according to Lee. Some nonplastic alternatives are more expensive, and kitchen staff members have to be more careful when handling items like glass that could easily break if dropped.
But he said the elimination of plastics at Shia has led to a positive cultural shift among staff members, many of whom have also reduced their plastic use at home.
"Being surrounded by a lot of disposables … your attitude becomes more disposable," Lee said. "When we're surrounded by permanence, we're a little bit more focused — we're a little bit more careful."
He added: "Once you do this, you realize there's no going back."
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