《TAIPEI TIMES》Microplastics found in the majority of baby food products

Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital deputy superintendent Chiu Cheng-hsun, second left, speaks at a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Lo Pi, Taipei Times

By Esme Yeh / Staff reporter Nearly 80 percent of baby food products sold in Taiwan are packaged in plastic spout pouches which could contain up to 99 microplastic pieces per gram, data from Greenpeace Taiwan showed.

Greenpeace Taiwan in April surveyed baby fruit puree and yogurt products available in hypermarkets, pharmacies and baby stores nationwide, as well as on e-commerce platforms such as Momo, PChome, Shopee and Coupang.

All surveyed baby food products found in hypermarkets used plastic spout pouches, while the percentages of those sold through pharmacies, baby stores and e-commerce platforms ranged from 74 percent to 79 percent.

Parents buy baby food to provide nutrition for children, but are exposing them to microplastics, Greenpeace Taiwan communications officer Lo Chi （羅綺） said at a news conference on Tuesday.

Plastic spout pouches’ exterior polyethylene terephthalate layer would come into contact with children’s hands, while the inner layer of polyethylene would be in contact with the food, she said.

Greenpeace International last year commissioned the SINTEF Ocean Laboratory in Norway to test spout pouch-packaged baby food products from two major multinational brands.

Microplastics were detected in all the products tested, Lo said.

Some fruit puree products contained up to 99 microplastic pieces per gram, which is equivalent to more than 10,000 microplastic pieces per pouch, she said.

Some yogurt products contained 54 microplastic pieces per gram, equivalent to more than 5,000 microplastic particles per pouch, Lo said.

Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital nephrologist Yen Tzung-hai （顏宗海） said that medical research has yet to confirm how much microplastic exposure could be harmful to human health.

However, animal and cell studies showed that high levels of microplastic exposure could cause oxidative stress, inflammation or organ damage, he said.

Hsiao I-lun （蕭伊倫）, director of the Food Safety Testing and Functional Development Research Center at the Taipei Medical University, said plastic spout pouches might not only contain microplastics, but also unintentionally added substances that are generated during plastic manufacturing or use.

She called on the government to establish regulatory management of chemicals used in plastic packaging for food in line with Japan, the US and the EU to reduce health risks caused by synergistic effects among multiple chemicals entering human body.

Greenpeace Taiwan urged the Food and Drug Administration to promptly investigate the risk of microplastic and harmful chemical release in baby food packaging materials.

It also urged baby food manufacturers to actively test potential microplastic and harmful chemical release in their products and disclose the test results.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES