Poison on the plate (3/3). Health alerts on food have multiplied in recent years, so much so that it now seems difficult to escape pollutants on the plate. How to limit your exposure? France 24 takes stock.

Published on: 01/08/2026 - 09:27 Modified on: 03/08/2026 - 22:35

First, there were pesticides, then Pfas (or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances by their barbaric name), then, more recently, cadmium... Each time, the message from the health authorities is the same: these compounds are extremely harmful to health and yet, they are omnipresent on our plates and sometimes in our tap water.

If the levers of action to fight against these contaminations are above all political, certain individual reflexes can still help to limit the risks. What habits should you adopt in your kitchen? What foods should you avoid? Conversely, which ones to favor? France 24 summarizes the best practices to adopt to avoid (too much) poisoning.

Cadmium, Pfas... These substances poison our food. From the anxieties that this generates to the best practices to adopt to the challenges for municipalities, France 24 is devoting a series of articles to decipher the issues of these food scandals.

With cadmium, be careful with cereals

Along with tobacco, food is the main cause of cadmium contamination in the population, the National Health Security Agency (ANSES) warned last March in a vast study on the subject. Acting on the contents of your plate is therefore an effective lever of action to protect yourself from this heavy metal which accumulates in the liver and kidneys, exposing you to an increased risk of cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

Read also Understanding everything about cadmium, this toxic metal which contaminates French food

But to properly protect your plate, you need to look at two factors: which foods are the most contaminated, but also (and above all) how often you eat them.

In 2012, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) analyzed 144 food groups to measure their exposure to cadmium – one of the most detailed studies on the subject to date. She was thus able to draw up a list of the most heavily contaminated foods. Among them, algae, oilseeds such as sunflower seeds, mushrooms, offal, mollusks (notably oysters, mussels and clams), frog legs or even dark chocolate and shellfish all display concentrations above 10 micrograms per kilogram, a high contamination threshold. The first lever of action is therefore to limit their consumption.

But, unless you are a huge aficionado of seafood or frog legs, these products ultimately contribute relatively little to the overall exposure of the population. For good reason, they are generally only consumed occasionally and in small quantities.

Contamination – and this is what is most annoying – actually comes mainly from products that the average French person consumes daily: cereals such as pasta, bread or biscuits, potatoes and certain vegetables. Because although their cadmium content is lower, sometimes consuming them several times a day exposes us more.

Without going so far as to remove shells or baguettes from your weekly menus, Pierre Souvet, cardiologist and president of the Association Santé Environnement France (Asef) and author of a guide on the subject therefore advises to "vary your diet as much as possible" by avoiding overconsuming a single family of foods. If you have already eaten pasta for lunch, “you can replace your breakfast cereals or snack cakes and biscuits with compote and yogurt,” he suggests. “And regularly opt for dishes based on legumes as an alternative to pasta.”

And to choose these alternatives carefully, you can draw on the least contaminated foods: dairy products, citrus fruits, eggs, many fruits or even legumes.

At the same time, it is also advisable to vary the origins of our products. “We know that the cadmium levels in foods depend in part on their origin, because certain lands are rich in cadmium,” explains the doctor. This is the case for chocolate from South America, for example, which is often more contaminated than its equivalent from Africa.

For cadmium, Pierre Souvet provides one final piece of advice: monitor possible deficiencies in iron, zinc or calcium, which promote its absorption. A recommendation aimed primarily at women, who are more at risk of developing them.

Also read “The feeling of eating to die”: the fear of poisoning yourself in the face of food scandals (1/3)

On the Pfas, watch out for fish

Like cadmium, food is the main route of population exposure to perennial pollutants, particularly per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), according to the EFSA. However, for a long time, information was largely lacking on their presence in foodstuffs.

In 2025, the environmental association Future Generations wanted to fill this void by analyzing the official data available on thousands of samples tested in France, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands on four regulated substances from the large Pfas family – Pfos, Pfoa, PFHxS and PFNA.

The results showed that 69% of fish, 55% of mollusks and offal, 39% of eggs, 27% of crustaceans, 23% of milk and 14% of meat are contaminated by at least one of the four regulated Pfas. In France, where data was limited to fish, offal and meat, contamination rates reached 88%, 56% and 35% respectively. Conversely, meat (red or poultry, 14%), vegetables (7%) and fruits (3%) appeared to be the least affected.

In view of these results, it can therefore be recommended to limit your consumption of freshwater fish, offal, molluscs, crustaceans and milk of animal origin, and to instead favor foods rich in fiber such as legumes, fruits and vegetables.

But these observations are very general, deplores François Veillerette, spokesperson for Générations futures. “In reality, Pfas concentrations can vary enormously within the same food category,” he points out. Among fish, for example, perch and eels contain high levels of Pfas, while sea bream and salmon contain very little.

And to add further complexity, “even from one food to another, Pfas concentrations can display large disparities,” he notes. “For example, some eggs can have a high level of Pfas, especially if they come from an area where a chemical factory is installed. Others, nothing at all.”

“However, unfortunately, products often lack transparency about their origin. Most of the time, we never know if our egg comes from a farm close to a chemical factory, for example,” he explains. As with cadmium, "the best thing to do is therefore to vary not only the food families, but also the origins and brands for similar products. In short, avoid putting all your eggs in the same basket", he summarizes.

However, the NGO's study only focuses on four components among the multitude that constitute the family of eternal pollutants. It does not take into account, for example, trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), considered toxic for reproduction. On the subject, many gaps remain to be filled.

See also Eternal pollutants: citizens at war against industrial giants

“In your water” to control your tap water

Beyond simple food, drinking water is also often at the center of attention when we talk about PFAS pollution.

To check the contamination levels of the tap water that you drink during your meals, the Générations futures association has launched an interactive map “In my water”. This citizen tool collects and updates official data in real time to allow everyone to know the quality of the water in their home.

Other similar initiatives exist. CIEau, an association created at the initiative of water professionals, including large private operators, has for its part launched a free application entitled “EauChezMoi” which centralizes the results of health checks by municipality. In just a few clicks, each citizen can consult a whole host of regulatory parameters, including pesticide and Pfas levels.

To limit the Pfas content of tap water, you can use a filter jug ​​or, much more effective but more expensive (a few hundred euros), filtering systems to be installed under the sink by a professional.

Also read “Victims, it’s up to us to pay”: for municipalities, the challenge of contaminated water in Pfas (2/3)

Favor organic farming

Whether we are talking about cadmium, PFAS, but also pesticides, the two specialists have in any case a general recommendation: favor organic farming.

“Organic foods are much less contaminated by pesticide residues and other pollutants. A 2014 meta-analysis estimated, for example, that there was on average 48% less cadmium in organic foods,” notes Pierre Souvet.

A study entitled BioNutriNet also shows that opting for an organic diet is in any case favorable for your health. This is associated with the reduction of many risks, including that of cancer (–25%), notably breast cancer in postmenopausal women (–36%) and lymphoma (–75%). We also observe a reduction in the risk of type 2 diabetes (– 35%) and obesity (– 31%).

Will we one day be able to decontaminate ourselves?

“Unfortunately, all these efforts and these good practices make it possible at best to be in a logic of the least risk,” recalls François Veillerette. “Today it seems completely illusory to think that we can completely protect ourselves from any form of contamination.”

Faced with this bitter observation, a question emerges: will there one day be a way to completely decontaminate your body of these substances? In recent years, researchers have begun to look for ways to accelerate the phenomenon, while both cadmium and Pfas can survive for several years in our bodies.

In Australia, for example, a team of researchers is currently studying the option of donating blood to decontaminate people heavily affected by PFAS. The latter in fact mainly bind to proteins, particularly in the blood and in the liver. Some 285 firefighters received blood or plasma donations every six weeks for a year. In both cases, this helped lower their Pfas rate.

Danish researchers have explored another route, this time trying to intervene in the digestion process, during which certain Pfas are reabsorbed rather than evacuated. They are studying the properties of a drug, cholestyramine, normally used to reduce cholesterol. The latter was administered to residents of the town of Korsor, Denmark, identified as one of the main “hot spots” of Pfas contamination in Europe. In twelve weeks, their PFOS level decreased by 60%.

For cadmium, clinical trials are currently underway to study the effects of hemodialysis, that is, passing the patient's blood out of their body through a filter to capture polluting particles. An extremely heavy and expensive treatment, but which could be one of the solutions for people suffering from severe poisoning.

Although these results are promising, more research is nevertheless necessary to confirm the results and study the concrete effects on the health of the individuals concerned. “For the moment, the best lever for action is to avoid contamination,” insists Pierre Souvet. And beyond individual actions, insist the two specialists, the best way to limit contamination is to take political measures by acting at the source of the contamination.

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