There’s A Dangerous Ingredient Lurking In Your Boxed Mac ‘N’ Cheese

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You know the bright orange cheese powder that comes in your childhood favorite boxed mac ‘n’ cheese? Well, according to a new small study, the powder is packed with high concentrations of phthalates alongside its irresistible, cheesy flavor.

The Coalition for Safer Food Processing and Packaging tested 30 different cheese products — powders, natural block and string cheeses, and processed cheese slices — and found that all but one contained these chemicals.

Phthalates are widely used in the manufacturing of plastics, rubber, coatings, adhesives, sealants, printing inks and fragrance. They aren’t intentionally added to food, but sometimes, they can migrate into food products during processing, packaging and preparation. While the natural cheeses evaluated had the least phthalates, the processed cheese options had the most.

Phthalates present a health risk because they are endocrine disruptors, meaning they can interfere with the body’s hormonal system. Our fat cells absorb phthalates easily, and both men and women with high exposure levels have also struggled with fertility issues in the past. What we think is worse, though, is that children who are exposed to them while in their mothers’ wombs are at risk for behavioral and neurodevelopmental issues. So much for a family friendly meal.

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Of the 30 cheese products tested, 10 were cheese powders in boxed mac ‘n’ cheese. The powdered cheeses had four times more phthalates than the natural cheeses tested (and 1.5 times more than the processed cheeses). Another offending detail of this study is that some of these products are labeled organic, and this chemical additive certainly doesn’t meet organic standards. We don’t know the names of every brand included in the evaluation, but we do know that Kraft Heinz was one of them.

Further research is needed on the phthalate levels in food to understand what exposure levels humans currently have and what specific levels constitute as harmful, but phthalates have been banned from children’s products for almost a decade. We can digest them safely to a degree, but because we don’t know where the dangerous “constant exposure” threshold lies, we’re probably better off not knowingly consuming them until science can provide us with more answers.