Provincial salt industry: Leave content to talk about salt containing plastic particles is "rogue"

Guangzhou Daily news (reporter Geng Xujing) The United States "Scientific American" website reported on October 29 that researchers analyzed 15 brands of common salt purchased from supermarkets across China, In the salt particles, they found polyethylene terephthalate, which is used to produce ordinary plastic water bottles, as well as polyethylene, cellophane and a variety of other plastics. But the Guangdong provincial salt industry told the Guangzhou Daily that talking about microplastics in salt without its content was "going rogue" and that eating Chinese salt was much lower than eating seashells in Europe. Sea water is mobile, and the microplastics found in Chinese sea salt are also found in foreign sea salt.

Researchers analyzed 15 brands of common salt purchased from supermarkets across China and found polyethylene terephthalate, which is used to make common plastic water bottles, as well as polyethylene, cellophane and a variety of other plastics, according to the report. Sea salt had the highest level of plastic pollution. The researchers measured more than 1,200 microplastic particles per pound of sea salt.

"Scaremongering, going rogue! Yesterday, the Guangdong salt industry accused the study of deliberately targeting Chinese salt, sea water is mobile, and the plastic particles found in China's sea salt are also found in foreign sea salt. In fact, microplastics are not only found in salt, but also in some seafood products. To talk about microplastics in salt without its content is to be a "gangster", and the amount of microplastics ingested by eating salt in China is much lower than that by eating seashells in Europe.

However, the Scientific American report also notes that manufacturers typically extract sea salt from seawater by evaporation, a process that leaves behind everything but the water, so that in places other than China, there is a risk of contamination, according to Sherry Mason, who studies plastic pollution at the State University of New York, Fredonia. Microplastic contamination of sea salt is likely to be widespread as well. "Plastic has become such a ubiquitous pollutant that I don't think it really matters whether you find the plastic particles in sea salt on the shelves of a supermarket in China or in the United States," he said.

In addition, the research team said that if a person consumed the maximum amount of sea salt recommended by the World Health Organization, that person would ingest about 1,000 microplastic particles per year. That's still lower than the amount of microplastics that Europeans consume by eating shellfish. According to a report published last year, the average European is estimated to ingest 11,000 microplastic particles per person per year from shellfish. Shellfish can be contaminated with tiny Marine pollutants.

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