Vera Salt's biopolymer bag--just as toxic as plastic...
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...potentially MORE so?
A study looked at 43 different plastic products, including four petroleum-based.
"Most bioplastics and plant-based materials contain toxic chemicals.
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Cellulose and starch-based products induce the strongest in vitro toxicity.
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Most samples contain >1000 chemical features; the maximum is 20,000 features.
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The material type does not predict toxicity or chemical composition.
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Bio-based/biodegradable materials and conventional plastics are similarly toxic."Are bioplastics and plant-based materials safer than conventional plastics? In vitro toxicity and chemical composition
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412020320213from Vera Salt:
"We’re proud to use packaging that’s 100% plastic-free. The inner bag, which can look like plastic, is actually made from potato starch, as noted on the side of the box. It’s biodegradable, compostable, and a sustainable alternative to traditional plastics."Note that they don't claim their bags are less toxic, nor safer than traditional plastic.
Potato starch is non-toxic, but it looks like in order to make starch into a plastic they have to use plasticizers, which ARE toxic. So unless Vera Salt has some method of producing non-toxic bioplastic, which they make no claim to, their bags are a gimmick, and their "microplastic free" salt isn't microplastic free by the time you receive it.
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@Cicero Wonderful
. Been using Vera Salt exclusively for over two years now. -
Are bioplastics and plant-based materials safer than conventional plastics? In vitro toxicity and chemical composition
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412020320213Interesting, but I don't think the study would be all that relevant to any sort of real world use. From the Materials and Methods section-
"Three grams of each were placed in one or two amber glass vials, depending on their volume. After adding 20 mL methanol (99.9% LC-grade, Sigma-Aldrich), samples were extracted by sonication in an ultrasound bath for 1 h at room temperature. We used methanol because we aimed at maximizing the extraction of chemicals without dissolving the material completely and to be able to compare our results with our previous study on conventional plastics (Zimmermann et al., 2019). The methanol was transferred into clean glass vials and 200 µL of the methanol extracts were retained for chemical analysis."
For real world purposes, a solvent like water, vinegar, or ethanol would be much more appliable, to see how many of these chemicals could potentially leach out.
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