Mineral oil in food
This is the problem
Many food products that many people eat every day, such as rice, pasta and cereal, contain suspicious substances that do not belong in them: aromatic hydrocarbons from mineral oils, the so-called 'MOAH'. Laboratory tests commissioned by foodwatch show that these mineral oil residues can also be found in baby milk. MOAH is suspected of being carcinogenic and can damage your DNA.
How it started. 2012
After research in Germany, it appears that the cardboard packaging of popular Advent calendars is contaminated with numerous chemical residues, including the ink containing mineral oil. These harmful residues have ended up in the filling of the chocolates. At that time, there are no legal maximum values for the content of mineral oil in foodstuffs - not even in children's products.
How do they end up in our food?
An important source is recycled paper and cardboard packaging. These still contain many printing inks with mineral oils - and there are these MOAH in them. No matter how beautiful recycling is: the harmful substances don't always disappear. Other hazardous substances can also enter our food via packaging, such as solvents and plasticizers. There are other sources of this pollution, such as the machines used during food production. From this, too, mineral oils can leak into our food. Think of agricultural machinery during harvesting or lubricating oil of machines in food factories.
