Report Links Chipotle Bowls to Cancer-Causing Chemicals. Should You Really Worry?
A report from the New Food Economy found that molded-fiber bowls used by the likes of Chipotle, Sweetgreen, and Dig contain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.
PFAS are manmade chemicals that have been linked to many health problems, such as cancer, pregnancy-induced hypertension, and liver damage.
While you may not actually have to worry about direct contamination from the bowl to your food, the “forever chemicals” in the bowl will eventually end up in the environment.
If you’re like many people who enjoy a bowl from Chipotle or a salad from Sweetgreen after a ride, you’re probably freaking out: Last week, headlines everywhere were blasting that the bowls contain cancer-causing, “forever chemicals,” making you think twice about your favorite postworkout fuel.
But do you really need to worry? We dug into the report and tapped a leading toxicologist to find out.
What did the report find?
The New Food Economy—a non-profit newsroom that does investigative reporting on how and what we eat—published a report on August 5 that tested fiber bowls from 14 locations of 8 different New York City restaurants, including Chipotle, Sweetgreen, and Dig.
All of the samples contained high levels of fluorine, which indicated treatment with PFAS compounds, Notre Dame chemist Graham Peaslee, who conducted the testing, said in the report.
It is likely that the PFAS were added to the bowls to prevent grease from leaking through, Jamie DeWitt, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at East Carolina University told Runner’s World. These treated bowls tend to hold up to hot, greasy food better than regular paper containers.
What are PFAS?
PFAS, which are officially called “per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances,” are a class of over 5,000 individual synthetic compounds, including specific ones like PFOA and PFOS. They have been in use in the U.S. since the 1940s.
“They are in the environment due to their production and use, as they are not naturally occurring,” said DeWitt.
They are sometimes known as “forever chemicals” because they do not break down by sunlight, water, bacteria, or the enzymes in our bodies.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), PFAS can be found in food packaging, household products, like cleaners, stain- and water-repellent fabrics, and nonstick products, and contaminated drinking water.
What do PFAS do to your body?
PFAS can get into our bodies—usually through contaminated drinking water—and some can bioaccumulate, meaning they build up more in our bodies than in the environment, since we excrete them so slowly, DeWitt explained.
“We also are finding that PFAS are toxic,” she said. Some individual PFAS have been associated with diseases in humans who have ingested them—again, usually from contaminated drinking water.
These health risks include kidney and testicular cancer, pregnancy-induced hypertension and preeclampsia, liver damage, increases in cholesterol, risk of thyroid disease, decreased antibody response to vaccines, increased risk of asthma diagnosis, increased risk of fertility issues, and small decreases in birth weight.
“Because PFAS are persistent, we get continually exposed, and because they stay in our bodies for a long time, they can produce adverse health effects,” DeWitt said. “That’s why we should be worried about them.”
Is My Weekly Chipotle Fix Exposing Me to More PFAS?
Okay, so PFAS have been linked to some pretty serious health implications. But what does that mean for your Chipotle?
When Runner’s World contacted Chipotle about the latest report, they provided the following statement:
“As evidenced in Chipotle’s Sustainability Report, we are committed to using safe and sustainable food packaging and only partner with suppliers who make fluorochemical sciences and food safety a top priority. These suppliers operate under strict guidelines set forth by the FDA, and have all provided Chipotle with certification that all raw material and finished pulp products fully meet regulatory requirements.”
Still, we wondered: Are these food containers really a worrisome source of these PFAS?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), exposure to these chemicals through consumer products is usually low, especially when compared to contaminated drinking water.
Earlier this summer, after leaked documents revealed the presence of high levels of PFAS in food samples, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration—which reported their tests did not find PFAS in the majority of the food sampled—said that the PFAS did not pose “a food safety risk in human food, at the levels found in this limited sampling.”
There isn’t necessarily reason to panic about direct food contamination from your bowl, according to Dewitte.
“I’m not sure how readily PFAS from these bowls would get into the food that is placed into them, as people probably eat the food quickly and don’t store or reheat them for a long period of time,” she said.
The problem with these PFAS in your takeout is more likely environmental, she said.
“When the bowls are disposed of or composted, those PFAS will be released into the environment,” she said. “So it’s not necessarily the product, but the process used to make the product.” That could mean PFAS exposure down the line from other contaminated environmental factors, such as drinking water.
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Whether you eat Chipotle or not, you are likely still coming into contact with PFAS through other sources. While some states have their own laws restricting PFAS in drinking water, there is no federal law governing it, DeWitt said. (The EPA has a health advisory level for two individual PFAS in drinking water, but this is advisory and not regulatory.)
The good news, though, is that as health concerns about these PFAS increase, their production and use has been decreasing. A report from the CDC found that blood levels of PFOS and PFOA have dropped by more than 80 percent and 60 percent, respectively, from 1999 to 2014.
So what can you do? If you are worried about PFAS exposure, it may be more helpful to focus on keeping your drinking water safe than worrying about what you are eating at Chipotle, since the most common way you ingest them is through water. One way to do so is consider a filter for your tap. You can also try to avoid PFAS in household products, such as by replacing any Teflon nonstick cookware with cast iron, glass, or ceramic, limiting use of stain-resistant products, or avoiding cosmetics with PTFE or any word containing “perfluor” or “polyfluor” on their ingredients list.
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