We thought we had found a safe and sustainable alternative to oil derived. We have to keep looking

Many years ago, long before “Do you want a bag?” and The new European plugsI got a small summer job distributing potato starch bags by Media Granada. The world had begun to account for the huge problem of plastic bags and prepared to The day later.

In that sense, the potato starch was an extraordinary thing. First, because it was ridiculous, extravagant and left everyone out of play (a bag of what?); But above all because starch -based bioplastic seemed like a much more sustainable and renewable material.

The issue is that we begin to discover that they have problems.

What is a starch -based bioplastic …? Because, although potato bags will always be in our hearts, the true revolution of this family of products occurred when They reached the world of the container for food, disposable utensils, films to cover or even single -use medical products.

… And why are they a problem? A newly published study in it Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry He has just shown how “animals that consume particles of this alternative material develop health problems such as liver damage and imbalances in intestinal microbioma.”

That is, by Use the exact words of the authors of this study“Biodegradable plastics based on starch may not be as safe or beneficial for health as originally supposed.”

Eat plastic. The researchers They compared three groups of five mice: a group (control) consumed normal feed; The other two groups that consumed foods with particles derived from the ‘biodegradation’ of starch -based microplastics.

There are two because each one had a dose (low and high) calculated and climbing from the planned daily consumption for a normal human being. They monitored them, studied them and there the problems began.

What did they find? In the mice that consumed high doses of bioplastics They presented Damaged organs (including liver and ovaries), problems when handling glucose and even deregulated genetic pathways.

“Prolonged exposure to low dose of starch -based microplastics can cause a broad spectrum of health impacts, in particular the alteration of circadian rhythms and the alteration of glucose metabolism and lipids,” explained in the American Society of Chemistry Yongfeng Dengmain author of the study.

Should we worry? Well yes and no. Obviously, the results of the investigation are peliagudos, but not alarming in excess. Actually, if confirmed, the results are very similar to those of conventional plastics.

In addition, the study is small and the investigation is in a very initial phase. To put it in a summary way: we still do not know how much there are in these results. There is much to work, investigate and regulate.

And, deep down, the most interesting thing about this work is not its provisional results. It is the need not to give anything for granted and take care of the movements that we are doing in the development of new materials. It is, in short, a reminder that everything remains to be done.

Image | Raymond Petrik

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