Table 3 Occurrence and characteristics of microplastics in processed foods and honey
From: Microplastics in food: scoping review on health effects, occurrence, and human exposure
Type of product | Type of polymer | N/Np | Size range (μm) | Analytical method | Microplastic content (particles/kg(L))a | Sample origin | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Milk | PP, PE, polyacrylamide | 10/10 | 2.48-6742.48 | Inverted microscope+FTIR | 16-53 | Ecuador | (Diaz-Basantes et al. 2020) |
Honey (industrial and craft) | PP, PE, polyacrylamide | 14/14 | 5.15-5174.01 | Inverted microscope+FTIR | 22-114 | Ecuador | (Diaz-Basantes et al. 2020) |
Honey | Syntetic fibres and fragments | 47/47 | 40-3100 | Stereo microscope | 10-336 (fibres) 2-82 (fragments) | Germany | (Liebezeit and Liebezeit 2015) |
Honey | Coloured fibres and fragments | 19/19 | 10-9000 | Stereo microscope | 166 ± 147 (fibres) 9 ± 9 (fragments) | Germany, France, Italy, Spain Mexico | (Liebezeit and Liebezeit 2013) |
Milk | PE, PP, PS, PA, PU, polysulfone, polyvinyl alcohol | 8/8 | ≥ 5 | Micro-Raman spectroscopy | 204-1004 (particles/100 mL) | Switzerland | (Da Costa Filho et al. 2021) |
Milk | Polyethersulfone, polysulfone | 23/23 | 100-5000 | Epifluorescence microscope+SEM-EDS + Micro-Raman spectroscopy | 3 ± 2–11 ± 3.54 | Mexico (including international brands) | (Kutralam-Muniasamy et al. 2020) |
Dried marine fish | PE, PET, PS, PP, PVC | 14/12 | 195-4780 | Micro-Raman spectroscopy | 0.56 ± 0.03 (particles/g) | Asia | (Piyawardhana et al. 2022) |
Canned fish | PET, PS, PP PS-PP, PS-PET | 50/40 | 10-8000 | Optical & fluorescence microscope+Micro-Raman+ SEM-EDX | 0.05 ± 0.01-0.22 ± 0.02 (particles/g) | Iran | (Akhbarizadeh et al. 2020) |
Canned sardines and sprats | PP, PET, PVC | 20/4 | 190-3800 | Stereo microscope+Micro-Raman+ SEM-EDX | 1-3 (per brand/can) | Global | (Karami et al. 2018) |
Rice | PE, PET, PP | 52/52 | nr | Py-GC/MS | 52 ± 5.0-283 ± 50 (μg/g dw) (mass content) | Australia | (Dessì et al. 2021) |
Vinegar | PE, butylated hydroxytoluene, Irganox, Erucamide | 9/9 | 1-5000 | Stereo & fluorescence microscope+FTIR | 16.64 ± 6.34 (optically) 51.35 ± 20.73 (fluorescence) | Iran | (Makhdoumi et al. 2021) |