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Migration of Metals from Microplastics into Simulated Gastric Fluid: The Role of Particle Size and Comparison with Leaching from Bulk Plastics in Food Simulants
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Lab tests measured how much metal leached from plastic food containers and from microplastic particles of different sizes when placed in simulated stomach fluid. Smaller particles released more metal, but much of the metal stayed bound within the plastic. Calculations suggested the whole plastic containers posed potentially greater leaching concern than the microplastic particles.
Plastics are widely used as food contact materials, which have the potential to release microplastics (MPs), nanoplastics (NPs), and plastic-associated organic and inorganic chemicals into foodstuffs, thereby posing a potential risk to human health. Furthermore, ingested micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) can leach chemicals in the gastrointestinal tract, causing additional potential risks. While increased leaching of associated chemicals with decreasing particle size has been previously observed, the size-dependent behavior has not been rigorously characterized. In this paper, metal(loid) migration from a bulk food contact material (24 h) was first measured for food simulants and then compared to the migration observed for different sizes of the corresponding MPs in a simulated gastric fluid (1 h). A relationship between MP size (described by the specific surface area, SSA) and leaching was determined. Although metal(loid) leaching from the MPs increased with SSA in the simulated gastric fluid (pH = 1.5), a plateau, sometimes as low as ~5% depletion of the total metal(loid) concentration was observed. The results showed that part of the metal(loid) was tightly bound or embedded in the MPs, with the implication that for ingested MPs, the bioaccessible fraction of the metal(loid)s was substantially lower than the total inorganic content. Finally, risks due to leaching from bulk plastics into food simulants were compared to those associated with the leaching from ingested MPs in simulated gastric fluid. These calculations indicated that the bulk plastics were of potentially greater concern.
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Migration of Metals from Microplastics into Simulated Gastric Fluid: The Role of Particle Size
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