Roast dinner could be the equivalent of eating two plastic bags a year

Loose Women panel debate which sauces to have on roast dinner

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

It’s a staple of the British menu but the Sunday roast has been found to contain some potentially sinister surprises. Researchers have found the British classic contains 230,000 microplastic particles. Researchers said eating a similar meal every day would result in swallowing the equivalent of two plastic bags a year.

The study was carried out by Portsmouth University scientists and ITV’s Good Morning Britain.

The term microplastics refers to plastic particles that measure less than five millimetres.

To see how many infiltrated food, GMB reporter Michelle Morrison and her children made two roast dinners with chicken, potatoes, carrots, broccoli and Yorkshire puddings.

However, one meal was made with ingredients bought wrapped in plastic but the second had been mostly purchased without any plastic packaging.

The roast made from ingredients wrapped in plastic contained seven times more microplastics than the other one.

Experts said this showed that packaging is a major route for plastics getting into our bodies. The non-plastic packaged items also cost 37 percent less.

Doctor Faye Coucerio, an environmental pollution expert at the university, said: “It would appear that the majority of microplastics in our food come from the plastic packaging it is wrapped in.

“However, there are other ways that plastic can enter the food chain. It could be getting into the vegetables through the soil or into our meat through grazing.

Source: Read Full Article