Thermal Food Labels Leach Chemicals into Fish, Meat, Cheese and Produce

 A few years ago, I wrote a blog about toxic store receipts - the ones that are printed on thermal paper and have Bisphenol A (BPA) in them. Our local grocery store had transitioned away from all phenols, which is amazing! Because BPA is an endocrine disruptor and can cause all sorts of health issues for those who handle receipts - think store staff, bookkeepers and home owners who do monthly finances and reconcile their receipts against their credit card statements.

We first heard about BPA several years ago because it used to be in plastic water bottles. Big brouhaha happened over that and now we all drink out of metal water bottles. Well... apparently, “there's more BPA in a single thermal paper receipt than the total amount that would leach out from a polycarbonate water bottle used for many years" (see 2014 Consumer Reports).

While many stores are transitioning away from BPA in their thermal paper, they are now using BPS (Bisphenol S) which is equally as toxic as BPA. Sigh.

But wait... it's not just water bottles and thermal paper receipts we need to be concerned about! Now... there is the possibility that it is leaching into our fresh produce, meat, fish and cheese. 

Thermal Food Labels

Yep. Those labels. You know the ones - they are every single meat package and have the price and cooking instructions on them. They are thermal printed and contain BPS and other BPA-like chemicals. Then there's the cheese price labels... and the fish price labels... and the veggie price labels if you get a package with more than one veg.

But... but... they are wrapped in plastic film! How can chemicals leach through plastic film??? Don't ask me... I'm not a chemical engineer... but apparently it can happen. Maybe the chemical film changes it's chemical composition where it's in contact with the thermal label?

Ultimately, we've just traded in one toxic chemical for another. Bugger. And it makes me wonder about my local grocery store which has "BPA-free" printed on the back of their receipts. Are they really free of toxic chemicals or did they just trade in BPA for BPS? I've reached out to them and we'll see what they say.

As for the cheese, meat and fish labels... well... you can do several things:

• bag produce yourself rather than buying those pre-package packs wrapped on top of a Styrofoam tray 
• shop for meat at the butcher or fish counter
• bring your own container or aluminum foil and ask them to use that for packaging instead.
• or ask to have the label placed under the Styrofoam tray instead of on top
• ask your grocery store if their labels are "phenol-free" (not just BPA free)

Europe is way ahead of us on this and if they can do it... so can we!

Further Reading

CBC article on BPS in Thermal Food Labels - https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/bps-food-labels-1.6792373