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More than just caffeine: Microplastics in commercial ground coffee as a source of human exposure
Summary
Every single ground coffee sample tested from six countries, including popular brands you might have in your kitchen, contained tiny plastic particles, likely shed from packaging or processing equipment. While scientists don't yet know exactly how harmful swallowing these microplastics is, this study adds coffee to the growing list of everyday foods and drinks where plastic contamination is essentially unavoidable, highlighting the need for better food safety standards. If you're a heavy coffee drinker, this doesn't mean panic, it means one more reason to support research into microplastics and push for cleaner production practices.
Microplastics (MPs) are emerging contaminants widely detected in different environmental and food matrices, representing a potential route of human exposure through ingestion. Considering the high worldwide consumption of coffee, this study aimed to evaluate the occurrence of MPs in commercial ground coffee and discuss its relevance as an additional source of human exposure to these contaminants. Twenty brands of industrial ground coffee marketed in Brazil, Colombia, the Netherlands, Italy, Poland, and Belgium were analyzed, with three 5 g replicates per sample. After digestion with 10% KOH, filtration, and sorting under a stereomicroscope, the particles were counted and classified according to morphological type and color. For polymer identification by Raman spectroscopy, 28 particles were selected. MPs were detected in 100% of the samples, totaling 4,026 particles, with a predominance of filaments (94.237%), followed by fragments (4.397%) and tangles (1.366%). Blue particles were the most abundant among the color categories. MP abundance did not differ significantly among the analyzed countries but varied among individual samples. A theoretical worst-case estimate of the per capita/year exposure of MPs, calculated based on the mean number of particles detected in 5 g of coffee and the mean annual per capita coffee consumption in each country, was highest in Belgium and lowest in Colombia. Raman spectroscopy identified five types of polymers: PET, PU, nylon, PE, and white PVC, with a predominance of PET in most countries. The results demonstrate that commercial ground coffee constitutes a potential route of MP ingestion, reinforcing the need for monitoring throughout the production chain and for regulatory advances aimed at food safety.