3 Ways to Spot Microplastics in Your Food at Home

Microplastics are particles that cannot be detected by the naked eye. If not checked, Microplastics can cause several health problems. Fortunately, there are a few ways you can check and detect these harmful materials in your food and protect yourself and your family members from the deadly health hazards associated with them.

There are no concluding evidences of the negative effects of microplastics in the human body but current results indicate a possible link between chemical components of plastics and certain cancers. It is also believe that these harmful components may lower immunity and facilitate blood-related complications. Unfortunately most people don't bother to check their food components for these harmful agents. It is therefore important to sensitive individuals to conduct random checks for microplastics before ingesting food.

What You Should Know About Microplastics

Microplastics are minute plastic particles less than 5mm in size. These particles have become a growing problem worldwide due to their presence in different foods. While the particles are too small to be detected by the human eye, there are a few efficient ways to detect and eliminate them.

1. Density Test (Home Made)

The homemade density test is one of the ways to detect microplastics in your food. To perform the density test at home, fill a clear glass at a quarter full with a dense liquid like honey or corn syrup. Add a teaspoon of your food sample (salt or sugar) into the liquid. Stir the mix and observe for a few minutes.

If there are microplastics in your food, they will float to the top of the mixture forming layers of clumps or they may sink evenly. . If the food samples are mixed evenly without any unusual behavior, there may be no microplastics. Remember, you should stir your food to create homogeneity before you scoop a sample for this test.

Experts think that the homemade density test is not foolproof for the presence of microplastics in foods, the presence of other micro-particles can make the test inaccurate.

2. Use Coffee Filters

Coffee filters are more reliable than density tests when it comes to detecting microplastics in foods. Coffee filters are particularly suitable for liquid foods that can be hard to be tested.

For this test, you need a 0.1-micron filter or a substitute coffee filter of any brand. To perform the test, pour the liquid food through the filter and pay attention to the residue collected. The presence of microplastics is confirmed by the presence of particles that do not dissolve or look out of place.

Remember, coffee filter tests for microplastics may not be suitable for solid foods, they are however highly efficient for testing liquids.

3. Shake Test

Shake tests are conducted mostly on foods like salt and sugar. To perform this test, shake the food container for about 20 seconds and pour a little on a dark surface. Look closely and pay attention if some particles look out of place or fall out from the rest of the content. While microplastics cannot be seen with the naked eye, larger particles that seem out of place after this test may indicate the presence of microplastics.

Conclusion

To minimize or prevent the risks of contamination while performing microplastics tests, it is important to clean and sanitize your kitchen surfaces and utensils especially if you use them for other things like cutting raw meats, heavily-soiled vegetables, and fruits. Taking this step will further lower your risk of ingesting microplastics in food.

This content was originally written by me and shared on some other platform.