A recent study that looked for contaminants in 24 brands of German beer was recently released, and the results for all tested samples found some questionable traces of plastic and other materials that some beer-drinkers may find alarming.
The top 10 German beer brands were included in the study, and after filtering all samples, researches discovered microplastics, which are “fibres, films, fragments or granular particles smaller than 5 mm in size and made of synthetic polymers.”
It’s important to note however that the amounts discovered are not considered dangerous to human health if consumed, and only proves that, as the researches stated: “Their occurrence in a beverage as common as beer indicates that the human environment is contaminated by micro-sized synthetic polymers to a far-reaching extent.”
Also discovered were traces of sand grains, nearly complete insects, and in three samples, shards of glass. These types of contaminates are usually due to “inadequate product handling and storage”, which could be reduced with cleaner production environments and methods.
The report may seem alarming at first, but the question that should be asked is how many other beverages show similar traces of microplastics? Chances are these traces can be found in the water supply and go beyond just beer.
Sources: PubMed, TreeHugger
Photo: Quinn Dombrowski [Flickr]
