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The Presence of Microplastics in Mass Consumption Food

2024 1 citation ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count.
Mishell Arévalo Moyano, Alexandra Karina Pazmiño Pacheco, Universidad Politécnica Salesiana (Ecuador)

Summary

This review examines the presence of microplastics in mass-consumption food products, detailing how plastic fragmentation during manufacturing and distribution generates synthetic particles smaller than 5 mm that are imperceptible to the naked eye. Researchers found that these particles are difficult to extract from food matrices, raising concerns about widespread human dietary exposure.

At present, the use of plastic has increased disproportionately, since it is considered a material of easy handling, high durability and low production values. However, these characteristics have become one of the main problems of large-scale pollution around the planet, since the environmental factors to which they are exposed during their manufacturing and distribution line generate the fragmentation of the material, causing the start of microplastics. These structures are of synthetic origin and have a diameter of less than five millimeters, a characteristic that makes them imperceptible to the naked eye and difficult to extract. (Bollaín & Vicente, 2019a)

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