Detection and Characterization of Microplastics and Other Anthropogenic Particles in Seafood from Southern Thailand Markets

Market-sold seafood can integrate anthropogenic particles (APs) including artificial solid/microparticles from aquatic environments and introduced during capture, transport, storage, or retail handling. This study found visually suspected fiber-like or film-like particles in edible tissues of seven different widely consumed seafood commodities procured from three different fish markets of Southern Thailand. The mass-weighted market abundances were 0.382, 0.359, and 0.507 suspected fiber-like items g−1 wet tissue for Pattani, Songkhla, and Narathiwat, respectively. Among the different seafoods, seabass, black pomfret, green mussel, trevally, threadfin bream, short mackerel, and Pacific white shrimp showed the combined abundance of 0.681 items g−1, 0.545 items g−1, 0.477 items g−1, 0.396 items g−1, 0.393 items g−1, 0.287 items g−1, and 0.131 items g−1 of fiber-like items. In addition, clustered film-like particles were also observed in shrimp and short mackerel, but overlapping prevented complete enumeration. Raman spectroscopy classified two representative particles as probable poly(ethylene terephthalate), three as probable cellulose acetate, eight as cellulosic, one contained an indigo-type colorant without substrate identification, and seven were inconclusive. SEM supported fiber-/line-like and sheet-/film-like morphology. The location and seafood group patterns are therefore descriptive estimates of visually suspected particles including microplastics, cellulosic materials, etc.