Plastics in the food system: A scoping review of the impacts on human health, environment, individual/household economics and food security

Amid increasing public awareness of the potentially harmful impacts of plastics, global production of this remarkable and ubiquitous material has doubled in the last two decades to over 380 million tonnes per year. But how much do we actually know about the impacts of food system plastics?

This systematic scoping review characterises food system literature from ‘farm to flush’, examining the extent (volume of research), range (variety of exposure-outcome relationships) and nature (study characteristics) of evidence pertaining to both the beneficial and harmful impacts of food system plastics on human health, the environment, and individual or household level food security and economics.

Speakers

Joe Yates is a research fellow at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), currently working on Innovative Methods and Metrics for Agriculture and Nutrition Actions where he looks after the Agriculture, Nutrition & Health  Academy; a global network of interdisciplinary researchers and research users working at the nexus of agriculture-food systems for improved nutrition and health. His background is in research programme management and communications in global health. He has an MSc in Environment and Development from the London School of Economics, and a BA in History from the Open University.

Megan Deeney is a researcher based at the London School Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, working on the IMMANA programme (Innovative Methods and Metrics for Agriculture and Nutrition Actions). She graduated from LSHTM in 2018 with distinction and the John Rivers Prize from the MSc Nutrition for Global Health. Megan also holds a Bachelor’s degree in French and Spanish and has a background in overseas expedition management.

Heike Rolker is a researcher based at the London School Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), working on the IMMANA programme (Innovative Methods and Metrics for Agriculture and Nutrition Actions). She is a public health nutritionist with an MSc in Nutrition for Global Health from LSHTM, and a BSc in Nutrition and Health from Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands. Before her academic studies she trained and worked as a chef across Europe.