On August 13, Danish researchers are to reveal a new threat to the health of European consumers with evidence of dangerously high levels of carcinogenic substances in packaged foods ranging from cheese to chocolate to pasta sauce, the Financial Times reports.
The research is published in the Danish leading business magazine Borsens Nyhedsmagasin .
It was carried out by Steins Laboratory, an independent laboratory that also has the Danish state contract for mad cow disease tests.
The problem centres on multi-layered plastic laminates, heavy-grade plastic wrappings used for packaging sliced meat, cheese, sweets, ice lollies and many other foodstuffs.
These plastic laminates are composed of several layers of thinner film, which are usually fused together with a glue containing aromatic amines, agents recognised by the World Health Organization as carcinogenic.
Aromatic amines are also under suspicion as one of the culprits in the increased incidence of allergies in the western world.
The several hundred samples taken in the test included foods produced and sold all over Europe.
The results showed that eight out of ten of the tested foodstuffs contained cancer-causing glue residues in quantities that exceeded the recommended safe limits by as much as 30 to 40 times.
One product - a mozzarella cheese from Italy - contained 100 times the limit recognised in Europe as safe.
According to the magazine, the problem of carcinogenic glue residues migrating into foods is confined to laminated packaging material and does not apply to foods wrapped in household-grade cling film.