How to Prevent Microplastics in Your Kitchen from Being Ingested

You don't see them, but they're there: your kitchen is filled with hundreds of tiny plastic particles. For example, in a hot pan, these unwanted guests liquefy and seep into your food before becoming solid again as they cool on the plate. And they're not just there: without you realizing it, you could be constantly consuming them. These intruders found in our food are nanoplastics and microplastics, meaning particles measuring less than 5 mm or between 1 and 1,000 nanometers, respectively. But how do they get into our food? And in a world filled with plastic fragments, how can we reduce exposure to these materials in our food? If you take a close look at your kitchen, you'll begin to identify how microplastics get into our food. They seep out of the plastic water bottle you put in your child's backpack, float in the tea on your desk, and slough off the spatula you use to make breakfast. They're also present in the foods we eat, from honey to hamburgers.