Microwaving Plastic Baby Food Containers Releases Toxins

When you microwave a plastic baby food jar or pouch, you release tens of billions of nanoplastic particles and tens of millions of microplastic particles. This startling and troubling fact from environmental engineers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The researchers filled multiple polypropylene jars and pouches of the sort regularly sold across our nation with both water and a 3% acetic acid solution that mimics the acidity of many baby foods. After exposing the containers to microwaves for 3 minutes, they counted the plastic particles released. Pouches released more particles than jars, and experiments on living cells showed that these particles are toxic. Then too, storage of these plastic containers and pouches at room and refrigerator temperatures for over 6 months leads to the release of millions and billions of these plastic particles.

The bottom line: buy and heat baby food in glass rather than in plastic containers. If you do buy the pouches, don’t hear them and use them as quickly as possible.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.est.3c01942

#babyfood #plastics #polypropylene #jars #pouches