Micro(nano)plastics in commercial foods: A review of their characterization and potential hazards to human health

• Published in: Environmental research Vol. 236; p. 116858
• Main Authors: Thodhal Yoganandham, Suman, Hamid, Naima, Junaid, Muhammad, Duan, Jin-Jing, Pei, De-Sheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier Inc 01.11.2023
• Subjects: Extraction techniques; Food chain; Food safety; Human health; Microplastics; Human health; Microplastics; Food safety; Food chain; Extraction techniques
• ISSN: 0013-9351; 1096-0953
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.116858

Micro (nano)plastics (MNPs) are pollutants of worldwide concern for their ubiquitous environmental presence and associated impacts. The higher consumption of MNPs contaminated commercial food can cause potential adverse human health effects. This review highlights the evidence of MNPs in commercial food items and summarizes different sampling, extraction, and digestion techniques for the isolation of MNPs, such as oxidizing digestion, enzymatic digestion, alkaline digestion and acidic digestion. Various methods for the characterization and quantification of microplastics (MPs) are also compared, including μ-Raman spectroscopy, μ-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermal analysis and Scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX). Finally, we share our concerns about the risks of MNPs to human health through the consumption of commercial seafood. The knowledge of the potential human health impacts at a subcellular or molecular level of consuming mariculture products contaminated with MNPs is still limited. Moreover, MNPs are somewhat limited, hard to measure, and still contentious. Due to the nutritional significance of fish consumption, the risk of exposure to MNPs and the associated health effects are of the utmost importance. •The distribution of microplastics in commercial food items used for human consumption are discussed.•The promising methods used for MPs sampling, characterization and quantification are summarized.•Important health implications of MPs are highlighted.•Future research perspectives and concerns for human food safety are explained.