On July 12th, a group called The Coalition for Safer Food Processing and Packaging published a report online in which they claim to have detected a class of chemicals called phthalates in several boxed macaroni and cheese products. Phthalates are “plastisizers,” meaning that they are commonly used to improve flexibility and durability in many of the plastics used today. In the weeks that followed, the story spread across the internet and was reported by numerous news outlets and blogs. That such a story would be so widely reported is not surprising – mac & cheese is a very common food for kids these days (as well as poor college students) and no one wants to hear they are poisoning their children. But in this case, how the story was reported was perhaps even more interesting (at least to UYBFS contributors!), because it tells us a lot about how scientific information is communicated in our modern media landscape.

Should I Be Worried?

Before we get to that, let’s start with a discussion of risk. Is there any risk to children (or those poor college students) from the phthalates found in these products? Despite what many sources reported, the risk is almost certainly very low. Phthalates are definitely toxic in rats, where they act as endocrine disruptors. (An endocrine disruptor is a chemical that interferes with normal sex hormone signaling, and in the case of phthalates, they can alter sexual development and also cause changes in neurological development in rats.) Do they have the same effects in humans? Well, that’s not so clear. Some studies say that they do, others show no evidence of it. The uncertainty comes from the fact that humans are less sensitive to the endocrine effects of phthalates and the fact that while most people are exposed to phthalates, they aren’t exposed to very much.

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