Common plastic food packaging found to contain 9,936 harmful chemicals

You grab a pre-made sandwich from the fridge, tear off the clear wrap, and toss the wrapper without a second thought.

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Yet that throwaway plastic film contains thousands of chemicals that can move into your lunch, enter your gut, and settle into your bloodstream.

Scientists have known for years that additives such as bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates leach from containers, but recent studies show the list of migrating chemicals is far longer.

The longer food rests against plastic, the more time those molecules have to move, and a microwave zap or a sun-soaked picnic only speeds the process.

Tangled mix of chemicals in plastics

Plastics start as long polymer chains, but manufacturers tweak them with colorants, softeners, heat stabilizers, and other agents so the material bends, flexes, or shines on command.

Impurities, leftovers from production, and byproducts that form as the plastic ages or cracks add to the list, creating a mixture even chemists struggle to map.

None of these extra molecules are firmly locked in place. Heat, grease, ultraviolet light, and mechanical stress let them slip out.

This is why food-contact articles like bags, trays, squeeze bottles, and bottle liners top the list of concern. The warm interior of a delivery truck or the jet of steam from a dishwasher can do the job.

Thousands of chemicals, one sandwich bag

"We found as many as 9936 different chemicals in a single plastic product used as food packaging," noted Martin Wagner, a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU's) Department of Biology.