Warning to any parents who heat their baby’s food in the microwave
WHEN you're a parent, any device that can save you time is a good thing and popping your baby's food in the microwave to warm it can be super convenient.
But experts have warned that the time-saving hack could be contaminating your baby's food.
Baby food will often come in plastic pouches.
A team of food scientists, engineers and environmental specialists at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln found that high numbers of microplastic particles are released by plastic baby pouches when heated in a microwave.
These are tiny chunks of plastic debris that are invisible to the naked eye, but which often contain toxic polluting chemicals.
We unknowingly ingest up to a credit card's worth of them weekly, which can lodge in your nose and throat or end up in your poop.
Upon noticing that many baby foods are now packaged in small, plastic pouches that can be conveniently heated in a microwave, they sought to explore what happens when you do so.
They bought an array of microwavable baby food products and tested them in their lab.
As they were observing how the containers reacted to being microwaved rather than the food itself, the team removed the food and washed the pouches.
They then filled some of them with nanopure deionized water to simulate watery foods and others with 3 per cent ACS grade acetic acid to simulate acidic foods.
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Researchers heated the containers in the microwave for different amounts of time and then measured how many particles of plastic had ended up in the simulated food.
They also stored water and acetic acid filled containers in the fridge to observe how much plastic was released without the 'food' being warmed.
Results of the study - which was published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology - showed that while the amount of microplastics varied considerably, all of the simulated baby food samples contained high amounts of plastic.
For example, the contents of one pouch that was refrigerated for six months were to be infused with approximately 580,000 bits of microplastics, measuring between one to 14 micrometers.
The same container then released another four million particles into the baby food when it was heated in a microwave.
Doctors have previously warned that some baby food pouches can contain more sugar than a regular Coca-Cola.