Changelog

This week I introduced laboratory.love.

Think of it as a Kickstarter for plastic chemical testing. Crowdfund to reveal what's in your food and drinks. Each test uses the PlasticList methodology, but you choose what gets tested.

We've seeded the platform with several dozen top-selling products from major U.S. retailers. While we're starting with these high-volume products, anyone can suggest additional products for testing through our Add Product page.

Feedback So Far

How It Works

Why This Matters

In 2023, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) lowered their "safe" limit for BPA by 20,000x based on new evidence of immune system impacts in mice. Most similar chemicals remain poorly studied and regulated. The FDA currently allows 100x higher levels of BPA than what the EFSA considers safe.

Recent work by PlasticList systematically tested hundreds of consumer food products and found plastic-derived chemicals in 86% of samples, including 100% of tested baby food, prenatal supplements, breast milk, yogurt, and ice cream products. In their testing, 22 products from major retailers exceeded EFSA safety limits for BPA by 450% to 32,500%.

This massive discrepancy between US and EU chemical safety thresholds, combined with the widespread presence of these chemicals in our food supply, creates an urgent need for better data. While these chemicals have been used in food packaging and production for decades, we still lack comprehensive data about what levels consumers are exposed to through everyday products.

Laboratory.love exists to bring radical transparency around chemical contamination in consumer products. By crowdfunding independent testing and publishing results openly, we aim to:

The status quo of proprietary testing and inconsistent regulation isn't working. We believe the solution starts with open data.

For Manufacturers

If you're a product manufacturer interested in having your product tested, we welcome your participation in funding. However, to maintain testing integrity, we'll acquire all test samples through standard retail channels. This ensures products tested are identical to what consumers receive.

U.S. Focus

We're currently focused on products available in the United States. All products must be purchasable by a U.S. resident through standard retail channels to ensure consistent sample acquisition and shipping logistics.

What's Next

We're just getting started. Our next feature will enable direct purchasing of individual product tests - no need to set up a relationship with a lab or acquire and ship samples, and the cost will be less than it would to buy your own one-off test. Just a couple of clicks to get the data. This will be perfect for researchers, journalists, and others who want specific product data quickly.

Support

We're operating on a bootstrap budget and actively exploring ways to expand our impact. If you're interested in supporting this project through financing or distribution partnerships, please get in touch.

Laboratory.love exists to create transparency around chemical contamination in consumer products. We believe this data should be public, and we're excited to build this resource together.

---

Have products you'd like to see tested? Add them here.