The Red, White, and Green

Photo via Flickr: Joguldi

As if there weren’t reasons enough to shop for produce at your local farmers market, here’s one more:

Fruits and vegetables shipped using large plastic pallets may be contaminated with the toxic flame retardant decabromodiphenyl ether (deca), due to a practice known as hydro-cooling.

In hydro-cooling, fruits and vegetables stacked in pallets are immersed in cold water in order to maintain their freshness and ward off dehydration during the shipping process. Whereas wooden pallets were once the standard in the food industry, this process wasn’t a problem; but as plastic pallets were introduced, because of the fire hazard they posed in the plants where they were made, manufacturers began adding deca to the pallets. Researchers believe that the flame retardant tends to “bleed,” so the concern is that chemical residue from the pallets can make its way onto the produce as it is submerged in the water. 

While deca was originally thought to be a safer alternative to the long-since banned penta-bromine and octa-bromine, environmentalists and scientists have called this into question. Over three years ago, the American Chemical Society cited evidence that over time, deca can break down into more harmful forms; the Environmental Protection Agency considers the chemical to be a potential neurodevelopmental toxin.

What’s more, the fire retardant has not been approved by the FDA to be used in contact with food. According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), 

on April 29, Dr. Elizabeth Sánchez of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition advised a Washington, D.C.-area consulting firm that deca is “not authorized” as a component of plastic pallets used in the hydro-cooling produce. She said that FDA required pre-market approval for the chemical “to be used in contact with food.”

Maine and Washington state have already passed legislation to limit the use of deca, while 10 other states have introduced bills to ban the chemical. Plastic pallets are now being used by General Mills, Borders Melon Company, PepsiCo, Cott, Okray Family Farms, and Martoni Farm, while Dole Foods and Kraft Foods are considering making the switch to plastic.

Wooden pallets, in addition to being free of toxic flame retardants, are also a better choice for the environment, since they are often made from recycled furniture and scrap lumber that would otherwise have been discarded. When the pallets are no longer usable, they can be recycled into mulch, firewood, or wood flooring. 

The EWG is urging Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of the federal Food and Drug Administration, to order the food industry to stop using plastic pallets made with deca. Read the letter sent today by the EWG.

–Jennifer Grayson

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