Health by Amanda Sheppeard
Premium Content
Subscriber only ONE of Australia s most popular staple foods has been found to harbour potentially dangerous microplastics, a world-first Australian study has found. University of Queensland researchers at the Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences identified 3-4mg of plastic in an average 100g single serve of uncooked rice. The study, published today in the
Journal of Hazardous Materials, also found instant or pre-cooked rice contained four times more plastic - averaging 13mg per 100g serve. Lead author Dr Jake O Brien said they found washing rice before cooking reduced plastics contamination by 20 to 40 per cent.
Microplastics in seafood are most likely to come via oysters, mussels and shellfish. But how much of a health risk do they pose?
Posted
MonMonday 8
updated
MonMonday 8
MarMarch 2021 at 9:11pm
Bivalves like oysters and mussels are most likely to contribute microplastics to our diet because we eat them whole.
(
Print text only
Cancel
Key points:
Australians are most likely to eat microplastics in bivalves like mussels and oysters
The main type seafood eaten by Australians is fish fillet, which is a low risk for microplastics
We still don t know what effect, if any, microplastics have on human health
Microplastics abound in the ocean and are often eaten by sea creatures, which means the particles could also make their way into our bodies when we consume seafood.