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An interesting exercise is to view https://www.plasticlist.org/ and sort the items from highest to lowest.

Whatever your gut tells you about what has the most or least plastic in the food you're eating is probably incorrect.

War rations from the 1950s had the most, along with fast food cheeseburgers and Whole Foods grass fed steak.

Kraft Mac and cheese was low, especially after microwaving.






This is interesting -- it does put into context some of what was hyped up recently in the news, for example, the Fairlife Core Power microplastics. While it is higher in Core Plastics, it's not off by an order of magnitudes compared with other milk products.

The other question I have -- what does someone who consumes very little microplastics look like? Increased lifespan, decreased risk of cancer (by how much), does it have lead-like outcomes, etc... Avoiding microplastics seems like a lot of inconvenience (at least for an individual) -- I'd want to make sure the payoff at the end is worth it.


I would think -as microplastic particles have been found even in creatures in the deepest parts of the ocean- that it is nigh impossible to avoid them.

Previous discussion:

Plasticlist Report – Data on plastic chemicals in Bay Area foods https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42525633 - Feb 2025 (200 comments)

And another discussion for the same link is currently underway on the front page: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44366548

p.s. thank you, what a terrific resource


How microwaving can decrease the amount of microplastics? Any link for an explanation?

Nat Friedman, who I believe commissioned this site, said he was surprised at this finding: https://x.com/natfriedman/status/1872836471398539379

Direct link to a paper in replies if you don't use X: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286203208_Effect_of...


Microwaving causes individual particles to join into a delicious plastic-cheese emulsion, making them undetectable.

I figure it made the plastic less detectable by whatever measurement method was used.



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