What Are Phthalates in Food? The Plastic Chemicals Consumer Reports Found (2026)

Last updated: July 26, 2026

Phthalates vs microplastics: what's the difference?

If you follow the microplastics story, phthalates are the next chapter, and the confusion between them is worth clearing up. Microplastics are solid particles, tiny fragments of plastic you could, with the right microscope, see and count. Phthalates are chemicals: liquids added to rigid plastic to make it soft, bendy, and durable. They are not chemically bonded to the plastic, which is the whole problem, they slowly leach out into whatever the plastic touches, especially fatty or oily food, and especially when heated.

So a plastic yogurt tub can give you both: microplastic particles that flake off the surface, and phthalate chemicals that dissolve out of the plastic into the yogurt. They come from the same source, plastic, and the same habits reduce both, but they are measured differently and act in the body differently. This is why a product can score high on phthalates (Consumer Reports' angle) even where no one has counted its microplastic particles.

What the Consumer Reports investigation found

In 2024, Consumer Reports tested 85 foods, 67 grocery products and 18 fast foods, for phthalates and bisphenols. The findings were blunt: phthalates turned up in almost everything, from organic to conventional, fresh to packaged. The single highest reading of any product was Fairlife Core Power chocolate protein shake at roughly 24,928 nanograms per serving, which is what pushed this story into the mainstream. More than half of the products tested had levels of DEHP, the most common phthalate, above the amount research has associated with health effects.

Consumer Reports was careful to note there is no established safe line for phthalates in food, and that finding them nearly everywhere means the goal is reducing total intake, not chasing zero. That is the same honest framing we use for microplastics: you can't eliminate exposure, but you can meaningfully lower it.

Why DEHP is the one to know

DEHP (di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate) is the most-studied and most-found phthalate. Research has linked it to insulin resistance, higher blood pressure, reproductive and hormonal effects, and early menopause, with some associations appearing at doses below what US and European regulators currently allow. Phthalates are endocrine disruptors: they interfere with hormone signaling, which is why the reproductive and metabolic links keep recurring across studies. The evidence is associational, not proof of cause in every case, but it is consistent enough that the FDA opened a cumulative risk assessment of the eight food-contact phthalates in 2026.

How to cut your phthalate intake

The good news: the phthalate playbook overlaps almost perfectly with the microplastics one, because both trace back to plastic contact.

• Cut ultra-processed food. Phthalates enter food along the processing chain, tubing, gaskets, gloves, packaging. The more steps between farm and package, the more contact points. Whole, minimally processed food is lower.
• Never heat food in plastic. Heat drives phthalate migration hard. Microwaving in plastic is the single worst move; transfer to glass first. See microwaving plastic.
• Choose glass and cartons over plastic tubs and bottles. Fatty foods, dairy, meat, oils, pull the most phthalates out of plastic. Buy those in glass where you can.
• Watch the fatty processed products. The Consumer Reports leaders skewed toward fatty, ultra-processed items. Our milk brands ranked guide covers where dairy sits, and microplastics vs PFAS vs BPA puts the whole chemical-of-concern picture together.