Warning issued as study reveals we could be consuming 14,402 chemicals without realising

There's nothing worse than thinking about all the possible chemicals and bacteria that might be lurking in your food.

But it's about to get a whole lot worse, as 14,402 known food contact chemicals have been found in human blood, urine, and hair - according to new research.

No one wants to envision how many chemicals are potentially in the meal they're consuming, but researchers have revealed the harsh reality.

There could be unknown chemicals in our food. (Aleksandr Zubkov/Getty Images)

A team of public health specialists based in Switzerland found that 80 of the chemicals found in human traces, were also linked to cancer, decreased fertility, caused birth defects, or are toxic to humans.

They also found that 59 of the chemicals do not yet have safety information.

The findings shocked researchers just as much as the next person, as they expected to discover signs of a few hundred food contact chemicals.

Lead author, Birgit Geueke, said: "It surprised us that we found so many more chemicals in these big databases."

But what can be done to avoid these chemicals as much as possible?

Geueke advised shoppers to choose food that comes with less packaging, and to transfer food from plastic containers to glass or metal ones before heating it.

However, he added: "You cannot be made responsible for the chemical exposure coming from your food.”

Instead, it should be the responsibility of the policymakers to create new regulations - forcing food manufacturers to switch out the harmful materials they produce that come into contact with food.

The chemicals could be causing health problems. (Groomee/Getty Images)

But food isn't the only thing we should be worried about.

According to new research, bottled water could also be an issue.

In recent years, we've been told to ditch drinking water from plastic bottles because of its impact on the environment, but now we have another reason to consider as well.

When drinking water from a plastic bottle, it's important to be wary of the 240,000 plastic particles found in the average one-litre bottle of water. There could be up to 14,402 chemicals contaminating your food, according to a new study.

And it's a pretty concerning statistic, considering that there's only thought to be an average of 5.5 plastic particles per one litre of tap water.

The danger with the nanoplastics found in bottled water, is that they are so small that they can enter directly into blood cells and the brain.

They have previously been linked with developmental, reproductive, brain, immune, and other problems.