{"id":19227,"date":"2017-09-21T11:20:24","date_gmt":"2017-09-21T09:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.pricecheck.co.za\/?p=19227"},"modified":"2017-09-26T11:36:57","modified_gmt":"2017-09-26T09:36:57","slug":"yum-your-table-salt-contains-plastic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/blog\/yum-your-table-salt-contains-plastic\/","title":{"rendered":"Yum! Your table salt contains plastic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Salt plays two roles in our lives &#8211; on a macrocosmic scale it is significant for our Earth&#8217;s climate, on a microcosmic scale, it adds tastes to\u00a0dishes and ups our sodium intake for homeostasis. However, as we find our oceans overwhelmed with plastics, it comes as no surprise that somehow it has worked its way into foods sourced therefrom.<\/p>\n<h3>Recent studies revealed plastic particles present in table salt.<\/h3>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.mnn.com\/assets\/images\/2013\/08\/sea_turtle_plastic.jpg\" alt=\"Image result for eating plastic\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Apart from the synthetic pigments, industrial dyes and colouring agents used to make plastic, the study done on salt was found to have microfibres or microplastics which results from discarded plastic bottles. This investigation on the chemical composition of salts from 17 different salt brands over eight various countries on four different continents &#8211; found 16 containing these microplastics.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Screen-Shot-2017-05-12-at-4.39.51-PM.png\" alt=\"Image result for microplastics in salt\" width=\"545\" height=\"468\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The countries included<strong> Iran, Japan, Australia, South Africa, Malaysia, France, Portugal &amp; New Zealand.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nature.com\/m685\/nature-assets\/srep\/2017\/170406\/srep46173\/images_hires\/srep46173-f3.jpg\" alt=\"Figure 3\" width=\"446\" height=\"501\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Salt in other foods<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Apart from sprinkling regular table salt over our favourite foods, salt is also the main ingredient for almost all pre-packaged, pre-made and processed foods. These types of food range\u00a0from bread, pizzas, tacos, savory treats, biltong and cheese. Salt is not only consumed by humans but it is needed to feed cattle.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/pad3.whstatic.com\/images\/thumb\/8\/84\/Cattle-Feeding.jpg\/728px-Cattle-Feeding.jpg\" alt=\"Image result for salt needed to feed cattle\" width=\"436\" height=\"291\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not the first time plastic is mentioned in foods but more recently it was also found in drinking water. Many have also warned of staying away from certain foods imported from China which may contain plastic, such as:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"_kYe\">\n<li class=\"_AXc\">Tilapia Fish.<\/li>\n<li class=\"_AXc\">Cod Fish<\/li>\n<li class=\"_AXc\">Apple Juice.<\/li>\n<li class=\"_AXc\">Processed Mushrooms.<\/li>\n<li class=\"_AXc\">Chinese Garlic<\/li>\n<li class=\"_AXc\">Chicken<\/li>\n<li class=\"_AXc\">Plastic Rice<\/li>\n<li class=\"_AXc\">Black Pepper Mud<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Over recent years, many food items have been known to contain ADA (azodicarbonamide), a plastic foaming agent used to manufacture products such as yoga mats.\u00a0South Africans made a huge call for the removal of ADA from foods.\u00a0 Companies such as\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pioneerfoods.co.za\/2014\/05\/29\/removal-of-azodicarbonamide-ada-from-pioneer-foods-products-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pioneer Foods<\/a>, producer of Sasko bread, Wimpy, Pick n Pay and more, were all called to remove the ingredient in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foodstuffsa.co.za\/consumers-nudges-sa-bakers-to-cut-controversial-ada-bread-additive\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2014<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The effect of plastic on the human body<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>With the recent findings of plastic in salt, there is no clear understanding of the effect it has on the human body. A study like this would need to include a control group of people who do not have plastic in their system and at this point, this may be an impossible endeavor.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.saltsense.co.uk\/admin\/wp-content\/uploads\/sprinkling-salt.jpg\" alt=\"Image result for sprinkling salt on food\" width=\"402\" height=\"221\" \/><\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\">Now is the time to know your food brands. Go organic and read the labels.<\/h4>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.faithful-to-nature.co.za\/media\/catalog\/product\/cache\/1\/image\/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95\/s\/k\/sku9668v1-khoisan-salt-course-sea-salt-500g-large_1.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pricecheck.co.za\/offers\/92808063\/Khoisan+Trading+Co.+Khoisan+Salt+Coarse+Sea+Salt?sst=salt%2Cfkey%2Cc5148&amp;ssp=31&amp;sso=1&amp;rc=default\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18171 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.pricecheck.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/buy-now.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"127\" height=\"40\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">Lear To Make Your Own Bread<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i5.walmartimages.com\/asr\/965905f3-d638-465e-bb00-408cb9ba987e_1.560e6558fb846b4561d30c57db718b6f.jpeg?odnHeight=450&amp;odnWidth=450&amp;odnBg=FFFFFF\" alt=\"Image result for breadmaker\" width=\"401\" height=\"401\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pricecheck.co.za\/search?search=breadmaker\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18171 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.pricecheck.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/buy-now.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"127\" height=\"40\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Salt plays two roles in our lives &#8211; on a macrocosmic scale it is significant for our Earth&#8217;s climate, on a microcosmic scale, it adds tastes to\u00a0dishes and ups our sodium intake for homeostasis. However, as we find our oceans overwhelmed with plastics, it comes as no surprise that somehow it has worked its way<\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"\/blog\/yum-your-table-salt-contains-plastic\/\" title=\"Read More\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"amp_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1552],"tags":[2565,2566,2564,2563],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/lemon.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19227"}],"collection":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19227"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19392,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19227\/revisions\/19392"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}