A systematic scoping review of environmental, food security and health impacts of food system plastics

By:
Joe Yates, Megan Deeney , Heike B. Rolker, Howard White, Sofia Kalamatianou and Suneetha Kadiyala 
Nature
Date:
2021
Resource type:
Peer review

Plastic pollution arising from food systems is driving policies for reduction, removal, reuse and recycling, but literature on plastic uses and outcomes across subsectors is fragmented. We use a systematic scoping review to describe the extent, range and nature of published evidence since 2000 on seven major plastic types used at any point within food systems and their quantifiable effects on the environment, food security and human health. Although the majority of publications focus on agricultural production, relatively fewer consider retail, household and food waste disposal plastics. Gaps in the research include evidence from low- and middle-income countries, health or food security and/or economic outcomes generated from human population studies—and the subsequent environmental and human health effects. A greater understanding of this disparate evidence landscape is essential to formulate coherent research strategies to inform potential policy actions and assess trade-offs across economic and environmental targets, human health and food security.

Systemic Review of Plastic Waste in Food Systems
 

The logic model describes potential relationships between food systems’ uses of plastics and the intermediate and final outcomes. Source:Authors

 

Photo Credit/Pexels
This resource has been peer reviewed