Food consumption is an important route of human exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals. This has been demonstrated by exposure modelling or analytical identification of single substances in foodstuffs (phthalates) & human body fluids. Since the research in this field is focused on few chemicals, overall contamination of edibles with xenohormones is largely unknown. The aim of this study was to assess the integrated estrogenic burden of bottled mineral water as model foodstuff & to characterize the potential sources of the estrogenic contamination. Breeding of the molluskan model Potamopyrgus antipodarum in water bottles made of glass & PET resulted in an increased reproductive output of snails cultured in PET bottles. This provides first evidence that substances leaching from plastic food packaging materials act as functional estrogens in vivo.
