I have some supplements which requires to take with food. I put 2 capsules in my jacket pocket above my left pec. Looks like one of the capsules ever so slightly let a tiny bit out but noticeable when I went to take them.
So when I got home, I wanted to confirm what came out of my pocket was that supplement. I grabbed another capsule and easily took it apart to see the color of what came out.
But then I had an empty capsule shell in my hand, which is much easier to crush when it’s empty, and it felt very plastic like. Is it plastic? It is it similar? I would assume it’s fine to consume but how?
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You are sort of right. The capsules are usually made from a polymer, this is what we usually call plastic. This is because polymers have the desirable properties such as being hard, tough, able to withstand a lot of abuse, water tight, easy to manufacture, etc. However instead of basing the polymer on the toughest of plastics such as ethylene, styrine, vinyl, etc. they use polymers based on digestible chemicals such as sugar. It can be cellulose, starch, gelatin, etc.
Chemically speaking these are plastics and have the same chemical properties as most other plastics. However since they have been part of the nutrition to organisms for over a billion years we have enzymes that can break these down and digest them. You can try putting one of the capsule pieces on your tongue, if it is starch it will taste sweet and start melting from the enzymes in your spit.
These organic polymers have not been used a lot where regular plastic is expected because they can easily get infected by bacteria or fungi. But the modern push for biodegradable plastics as well as the huge amount of US government funds into the corn industry have caused organic polymers to become more common. You can for example find starch based packing peanuts. You can again test this by licking them, if they taste bitter they are likely styrofoam but if they are sweat and start melting they are likely starch.
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