We do our best to take care of ourselves, but recent testing shows there’s a potentially harmful chemical that even our fresh veggies can carry onto the plate — perchlorate, which is used in rocket fuel, missiles, explosives, airbags and certain types of plastic.
Consumer Reports analyzed samples to see just how contaminated our food really is. They looked at 196 samples of 63 supermarket products and 10 fast food items chosen based on prior research, and analyzed the items’ packaging as well.
About 67% of CR’s samples had detectable perchlorate levels. Children’s and baby food had the highest levels, averaging 19.4 parts per billion (ppb). Fast food (7.7 ppb) and fresh fruits and vegetables (9.3 ppb) also had high perchlorate levels, on average.
Anything wrapped in plastic carried a much higher risk. Food in plastic containers averaged nearly 54 ppb of perchlorate.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s safety threshold for perchlorate is 0.7 micrograms per kilogram of body weight per day. But CR reports that some experts say this is too high — and other countries seem to agree. The European Food Safety Authority has set a threshold of less than half the EPA’s: 0.3 micrograms per kilogram of body weight per day.
CR didn’t find any food items with perchlorate levels above either the EPA’s or EFSA’s limits within one serving. But, “we eat more than one serving of food a day,” CR says.
Those exposed to high levels of perchlorate can develop thyroid issues and experience changes in hormone production. This could affect metabolism in adults, leading to disorders like type 2 diabetes.
Since thyroid hormone levels can affect brain and nervous system development, fetuses and young children can be impacted by exposure as well. It’s also easier for children and babies to consume a dangerous amount of perchlorate because of their size.
A serving of the CR-tested boxed mac and cheese contained nearly 50% of the EFSA limit for a 1- or 2-year-old. A serving of the tested baby rice cereal, baby multigrain cereal or organic yogurt would be a quarter of the limit each. (CR did not specify the brands of products it tested.)
As mentioned before, fresh foods aren’t exempt from this. A serving (typically around three-quarters a cup) of baby carrots, collard greens and cucumbers each exceeds 50% of the EFSA daily limit for kids between one and two years old.
So, processed foods or not, it wouldn’t be difficult for a young child to exceed daily limits.
CR’s experts can’t say for sure, but they hypothesize that perchlorate is most abundant in food marketed for children because those products are more likely to use anti-static plastic packaging, which sometimes contains perchlorate. As for produce, it may be because it was irrigated with water contaminated with the chemical.
Advocates have been trying to reduce the amount of perchlorate in food for years. In 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration denied a petition from several health and environmental advocacy groups that asked the FDA to ban perchlorate in food packaging.
CR reports that in 2020, the EPA walked back delayed plans to set limits on perchlorate in drinking water.
The Natural Resources Defense Council sued the EPA, and a U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the EPA’s reversal wasn’t allowed. The court ordered the EPA to put limits on perchlorate in drinking water, and the agency said they’ll propose those limits by Nov. 21, 2025.
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