Endocrine disruptors abundant in fast foods

Sampling of popular fast food items such as hamburgers, fries, and chicken nuggets reveals that these foods contain abundant endocrine-disrupting chemicals that can potentially lead to health problems, according to data collected from fast-food restaurants in the US. 

Already, it is widely known that fast foods may contain high amount of fats and sodium and present a hazard to health — the new study further compounds the sin of fast-food consumption now that potentially harmful chemicals were detected.

“These data support prior observations that consumption of highly processed and prepared foods contribute to human exposure of legacy ortho-phthalates,” said the researchers.

Phthalates such as DEHP and DnBP — a class of chemicals commonly found in food packaging and equipment for food processing — can leach out and come into contact with food. While certain ortho-phthalates have been phased out and taken over by non-phthalate or replacement plasticizers, the health impacts of these replacement plasticizers have not been well studied.

In the exposure assessment study, researchers analysed 64 fast food samples comprising hamburgers, fries, chicken burritos, chicken nuggets, cheese pizza and three samples of gloves from restaurant in San Antonio, Texas. The samples were analysed for 11 chemicals, including the ortho-phthalates DnDnBP and DEHP and the replacement plasticizer DEHT, using gas chromatography mass spectrometry. [J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 2021;doi:10.1038/s41370-021-00392-8]

DnBP was detected in 81 percent of the food, while DEHP was found in 70 percent of them. On the other hand, 86 percent of the food contained the replacement plasticizer DEHT.  

Among the chemicals analysed, DEHT was also the one present at the highest concentration in both food (median=2,510 μg/kg; maximum=12,400 μg/kg) and gloves (range, 28–37 percent by weight).

“DEHT was the most frequently detected replacement plasticizer and was detected at much higher concentrations than other chemicals,” the researchers reported. “We generally observed higher chemical concentrations in foods containing meat relative to other foods, such as cheese pizza.”

When analysed by sample type, burritos contained a higher concentration of DEHT than hamburgers (median, 6,000 vs 2,200 μg/kg; p<0.0001) while none was detected in fries.

Cheese pizza appeared to contain the lowest concentration of most chemicals analysed.

As DEHT and DINCH were also detected in gloves collected from the same restaurants whereby these chemical-containing foods were collected, the researchers believed that one source of plasticizer exposure may come from food handling contact materials.

“Hamburgers and burritos require more assembly than fries, thus the increased handling of hamburgers and burritos by gloved workers may explain their higher concentrations,” suggested the researchers. “Alternatively, this finding could reflect the generally higher concentrations of chemicals in foods with meat.”

“Many of these chemicals have been associated with adverse health outcomes or based on in vitro data, have the potential to be harmful to human health,” the researchers explained. “Exposure to ortho-phthalates such as DEHP and DnBP is linked to adverse health effects including neurodevelopmental, metabolic, and reproductive disorders.”

“These findings could push restaurants to voluntarily adopt policies to eliminate harmful chemicals in their foods,” they added.