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Microplastics and Food Safety
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This review examines how microplastics interact with chemical contaminants and pathogens in food products, focusing primarily on seafood and crops. Researchers found that current studies largely overlook important food sources like vegetables, livestock, and poultry, and rarely account for contaminants that may leach from food-contact plastic materials. The study suggests that existing data is insufficient to estimate realistic human consumption of microplastics and their potential long-term health effects.
The widespread distribution of microplastics (MPs) in the environment poses an evident threat to the well-being of aquatic and terrestrial organisms, many of which are farmed or caught for human consumption. Under this context, MP ingestion seems inevitable. The nature of MPs and their interaction with external contaminants, including organic and inorganic chemicals and pathogens, could derive implications for food security. The present chapter addresses the factors involved in MPs and food security by covering their interaction with chemical contaminants and pathogens, as well as recent studies on the concentration of MPs in seafood and crops and their respective sources. Current studies are still limited primarily to seafood (mostly, fish and mollusks), while other important sources of food, such as vegetables, livestock, and poultry products remain poorly investigated. Furthermore, MP surveys in food products focus on the identification of suspected particles (confirming polymer composition), while overlooking their association with other contaminants, including those that may leach out from food-contact plastic materials. The latter is of particular interest to food safety due to their toxicity. The current literature is still far from being sufficient to estimate realistic MP and MP-related contaminant consumption in humans at a large scale and their potential chronic health effects.
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