Plastic peril lurking in your fruit and veg

MICROPLASTICS are being absorbed into the fruit and vegetables we eat – with apples and carrots particularly at risk.

The findings by scientists prove for the first time that we are consuming plastic from plants – raising fears over the long-term health consequences.

It highlights the urgency of stopping plastic pollution – an issue the Daily Mail has campaigned over for many years.

With its Turn the Tide on Plastic and other campaigns, the paper successfully championed a charge on plastic carrier bags and the banning of microbeads in cosmetics and personal care products.

A study found that fruit contained an average 223,000 of plastic nanoparticles and vegetables had an average of 97,800 in samples of just one gram.

The plastic was measurable in microns, each measuring 1,000th of a millimetre. The smallest particles were discovered in carrot samples (1.51microns), while the biggest were in a lettuce (2.52microns).

Researchers speculate that more microplastics enter fruit because their trees have much older root systems than vegetables – so absorb more plastic particles over time.

The vegetables were bought in supermarkets and greengrocers in Italy, the journal Environmental Research reported.

Margherita Ferrante, from the University of Catania, in Sicily, who carried out the study, said the findings were ‘worrying’, particularly for children.

She added that ‘is of urgent importance... to investigate the possible effects of microplastics on human health.’

Plastic particles are also able to penetrate the roots of lettuce and wheat and are then transported to the edible parts of the plants, a separate study found.

The study, published in Nature Sustainability, showed root vegetables, such as carrots, radishes and turnips and leafy vegetables like lettuce, were most at risk from microplastic contamination.

It was carried out by the Leiden University in the Netherlands and the Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research in China.

Previous research has found microplastics in bottled water and fish as well as the air we breathe. Both studies have been shared with the Plastic Health Coalition ahead of a key summit in Amsterdam next April which will look into the relationship between plastic and health.

Maria Westerbos, the founder of the Plastic Soup Foundation, which is organising the summit, said: ‘For years we have known about plastic in crustaceans and fish, but this is the first time we have known about plastic getting into vegetables.

‘If it is getting into vegetables, it is getting into everything that eats vegetables, which means it is in our meat and dairy as well.’