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Microplastics in the Food Chain
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This review examines how microplastics enter the food chain through water, soil, and air contamination during agricultural production, post-harvest handling, processing, and packaging, with endocrine-disrupting chemicals like bisphenols and phthalates posing significant health risks.
Plastics have been made from fossil fuels for more than a century. However, the usage of plastic has increased exponentially as it has been identified as a multipurpose material. Microplastics are commonly found due to improper disposal methods. Consequently, microplastics enter the food chain via water, soil, and air during the production stage of agricultural commodities. In addition, major steps in the food value chain, such as post-harvest handling, processing, packaging, storage, transportation, and serving, are key routes of contamination by microplastics. In particular, when synthetic plastic materials are used for food packaging, they can leak into food, causing health hazards. Bisphenols and phthalates are endocrine disruptors implicated in noncommunicable diseases and toxicity to the human brain. To avoid contamination of the food chain by microplastics, replacing plastics with natural materials and recycling plastics can be considered. This chapter focuses on identifying methods of contamination, reducing the risk of contamination, and using alternative packaging materials and techniques to minimize contamination by microplastics in the food chain and food value chain.
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This review examines how microplastics enter and move through the food chain, posing risks to animal health, human wellness, and ecosystems. Researchers found that microplastic contamination has been extensively studied in aquatic environments and marine species, but significant knowledge gaps remain regarding their accumulation and impacts in agricultural soils and plant systems. The study calls for more research on soil microplastic contamination to reduce food chain hazards.
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This review traces how microplastics enter the human food chain through both animal and plant sources, food packaging, and beverages. Once consumed, microplastics can accumulate in tissues and release harmful chemicals like plasticizers and heavy metals inside the body. The study emphasizes that food has become a major exposure pathway for microplastics and calls for stricter regulation of plastic use in food production and packaging.
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This review examines how microplastics move through the food chain, from water and soil into plants and animals, and ultimately into human food. Microplastics become more dangerous when they absorb toxic chemicals from the environment, and they accumulate in organisms because they take longer to pass through the body than to be consumed. The review highlights that microplastic bioaccumulation through the food web is a direct pathway for human exposure.
Research digests by email
When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.