Health risk Sick due to plastic particles from kitchen utensils

Harmful plastic components can be transferred to food

In a statement, the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) points out that certain plastic ingredients from kitchen utensils can become foodstuffs and become a potential health problem.

Plastic kitchen utensils can become a health risk

Kitchen utensils made of plastic are widely used nowadays. Not all of them are harmless. For example, consumer advocates have pointed out in the past that when heating kitchen utensils made of plastic such as melamine or silicone under certain circumstances harmful substances may be released. When baking with silicone molds, care should therefore be taken to let the molds out beforehand in order to reduce the health risk. Even kitchen utensils made of polyamide (PA) can be a health hazard.

According to experts, components of polyamide kitchen helpers can go into the food and become a potential health problem. (Image: PhotoSG / fotolia.com)

Polyamide ingredients can be converted into foods

Although kitchen aids made of polyamide (PA) serve many purposes in baking, roasting and cooking, components of this plastic can be transferred from the utensils to the food and become a potential health problem.

This was the result of an evaluation by the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), which examined how to classify the risk of ring-shaped oligomers that are transferred from PA6 and PA66 polyamide to food.

As the experts explain in a communication, oligomers are compounds that are composed of a few similar molecules of simple plastic building blocks, such as caprolactam (PA 6) or adipic acid (PA 66) and hexamethylenediamine.

According to the information, such oligomers are formed unintentionally when curing (polymerizing) the plastic. Due to their small molecular size they can diffuse through the plastic and go over to food.

Maximum daily intake

Due to the lack of experimental toxicological data, the scientists of the BfR used the PA oligomers of the TTC method.

TTC stands for "Threshold of toxicological concern", in German about "Threshold of toxicological concern".

According to the scientists, the method of classifying substances for which there is no toxicological information into (Cramer) classes based on their chemical structure allows each class to have a maximum daily intake up to which exposure to the associated substances is unlikely.

For this purpose, extensive data on chemical compounds, for which sufficient information about health risks already exists, are used.

No final risk assessment yet

According to the BfR, the PA oligomers are not suspected to be carcinogenic. Therefore, according to the TTC concept, up to a daily intake of 90 micrograms (0.09 milligrams) of the individual cyclic PA oligomers (based on a person weighing 60 kilograms), a health risk is unlikely.

Investigations by the Food Inspection and the BfR show, however, that kitchen utensils can often transfer higher amounts of ring-shaped PA oligomers into food.

From the point of view of the BfR, a final risk assessment can not be carried out until sufficient information has been obtained from toxicological studies.

The BfR therefore recommends that the manufacturers develop toxicological data according to the specifications of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and make it available to the BfR. (Ad)