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Hazard and Management of Emerging Environmental Pollutants in Food of China
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This study reviewed emerging environmental pollutants — including antibiotics, endocrine disruptors, perfluorinated compounds, and microplastics — in major Chinese food categories. Microplastics were detected across seafood, produce, and packaging-associated foods, highlighting widespread dietary exposure pathways.
The occurrence of emerging environmental pollutants brings new challenges to food safety in China, which needs to be systematically researched. This study focused on the distribution, hazard characteristics, and sources of antibiotics, endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), and microplastics (MPs) in major foods such as vegetables, fruits, grains, meat, aquatic products, eggs, and milk. It was found that fluoroquinolones showed a high detection rate in aquatic products, vegetables, and milk. Fluoroquinolones were mainly derived from the use of agricultural and veterinary drugs. Bisphenol A (one of phenolic EDCs) was frequently detected in canned food and aquatic products, and nonylphenol was mostly detected in aquatic products. Both EDCs were mainly from food packages. PFCs possessed a high detection rate in aquatic products, livestock meat, poultry meat, and eggs. PFCs were mainly from wastewater treatment plants and food packages. MPs showed a very high detection rate in aquatic products, which were mainly imported by contaminated environmental media. Ingestion of environmental emerging pollutants through food may lead to disease risk of human. Thus, it is recommended to monitor more types of emerging environmental pollutants in the scope of food safety, systematically plan the scientific rules of usage of the chemicals, and formulate a multi-departmental joint management and control mechanism to better cope with the issue of food safety caused by emerging environmental pollutants and effectively ensure food safety.
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Research progress on source, risk assessment, and management of emerging pollutants in drinking water.
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This Chinese review covers emerging drinking water pollutants including microplastics, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and antibiotics, examining their sources, environmental pathways, and health risk frameworks. The authors highlight microplastics as a particularly complex challenge due to their ability to adsorb and co-transport other toxic contaminants into drinking water supplies.
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This paper reviews China's evolving approach to monitoring and regulating emerging contaminants including microplastics, antibiotic resistance genes, and endocrine disruptors, describing the Ministry of Ecology's 2023 priority list.
Comprehensive Review on Environmental Biogeochemistry of Nonylphenol and Suggestions for the Management of Emerging Contaminants
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This paper is not primarily about microplastics; it is a Chinese-language comprehensive review of nonylphenol — an endocrine-disrupting chemical — covering its environmental concentrations, ecological risks to aquatic organisms, and management strategies in Chinese water bodies. Microplastics are mentioned only briefly as a co-occurring class of emerging contaminants.
Emerging Contaminants in the Effluent of Wastewater Should Be Regulated: Which and to What Extent?
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This study identified 18 high-risk emerging contaminants in Chinese wastewater treatment plant effluent, including pharmaceuticals and endocrine-disrupting chemicals like bisphenol-A, that need stricter regulation. While focused on chemical contaminants rather than microplastics directly, these pollutants often coexist with microplastics in wastewater and can bind to plastic particle surfaces. Better regulation of wastewater discharge is essential for reducing the combined health risks from microplastics and the chemicals they carry.
Emerging and Persistent Food Contaminants: A Decade Review of Their Health Risks and Mitigation Strategies
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This decade-long narrative review synthesized evidence on emerging and persistent food contaminants including heavy metals, pesticides, mycotoxins, microplastics, pharmaceuticals, and endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Microplastics emerged as a growing concern across the food chain, with evidence accumulating for systemic health effects via ingestion of contaminated food and water.
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