Food and human safety: the impact of microplastics

Figures & data

Figure 1. Sizes of plastics.

Table 1. The properties of microplastic present in food.

Polymer type	Monomer	Health effectsmonomer	Sources	References
Polyethylene (PE)	Ethylene	Asphyxia	Shopping bags, wrap film	(Çobanoğlu et al. 2021; Wang et al. 2022)
Polypropylene (PP)	Propylene	Asphyxia	Bottle caps, reusable food containers, wrap film, insulation material, single-use face masks	(Hwang et al. 2019)
Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET)	Terephthalic acid	Irritating to eyes, respiratory system and skin	Bottles, textile fibers	(Oßmann et al. 2018; Schymanski et al. 2018)
	Ethylene glycol	Kidney damage
Poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC)	Vinyl chloride	Skin and respiratory irritation, eye hazard, liver damage, proven carcinogenic	Pipes, shoe soles, window frames	(Qin et al. 2022)
Polystyrene (PS)	Styrene	Skin and respiratory irritation, neurotoxic, possibly carcinogenic	Insulation boards (styrofoam)	(Huang et al. 2022; Liu, Wang, et al. 2022)
Polyamide (PA)	Adipic acid	Eye damage	Carpets, sportswear, textile	(Deshoulles et al. 2022)
Polycarbonate (PC)	Bisphenol A	Skin and respiratory irritation, hazardous to eyes, burns, cardiovascular damage, arrhythmia, hypotension, damages kidneys and liver, causes blood hemolysis, coma, convulsions and spasms	Construction materials, roofs of greenhouses, CD, DVD, glasses lens, reusable bottles	(Shi et al. 2021)

Figure 2. The number of articles concerning microplastic from 2012 to 2021 (based on source: ScienceDirect).

Table 2. The categorization of MP based on shape.

Shape name	Abbreviation	Size
Pellet	PT	5–1 mm
Microbead	MBD	1–1 µm
Fragment	FR	5–1 mm
Microfragment	MFR	1–1 µm
Fiber	FB	5–1 mm
Microfibre	MFB	1–1 µm
Film	FI	5–1 mm
Microfilm	MFI	1–1 µm
Foam	FM	5–1 mm
Microfoam	MFM	1–1 µm

Table 3. The categorization of MP based on color.

Color	Abbreviation
Any color	ALL
All opaque	AO
All transparent	AT
Amber	AM
Beige	BG
Black	BK
Blue	BL
Brown	BN
Bronze	BZ
Charcoal	CH
Clear	CL
Dark	DK
Gold	GD
Green	GN
Grey	GY
Ivory	IV
Light	LT
Metallic	MT
Olive	OL
Opaque	OP
Orange	OR
Pink	PK
Purple	PR
Red	RD
Silver	SV
Speckled	SP
Tan	TN
Transparent	TP
Turquoise	TQ
Violet	VT
White	WT
Yellow	YL

Table 4. Microplastic in food.

Food	Polymer	Size	Quantity/Concentration	Shape	References
Beverages
Water	PE≈PP > PS > PVC > PET	–	1 × 10^-2–108 MPs/m^3	Fragments, fibers, films, foams	(Koelmans et al. 2019)
	–	100–5000 µm	0–61 MPs/dm^3	Fibers	(Schymanski et al. 2018)
	PET, PP, PE, PA	1–500 µm	0–253 MPs/dm^3	Fragments	(Kosuth, Mason, and Wattenberg 2018)
	PBD	7–20 µm	1897 ng/dm^3	–	(Vega-Herrera et al. 2022)
	PI		9143 ng/dm^3
	PET, epoxy resin	100–1000 µm	5 ± 2 to 91 ± 14 MP/dm^3	Fibers	(Shruti, Pérez-Guevara, Kutralam-Muniasamy 2020b)
	Cellulose	–	–	Fibers	(Wiesheu et al. 2016)
Tea	PTFE, PE, PC, PVC, EVA, ABS, cellulose acetate	200.6–220.7 μm	10.9 million grams of MPs/year	Fragments, fibers	(Afrin, Rahman, Akbor, et al. 2022)
	PA, PEA	100–2000 µm	1–6 MPs/dm^3 100% samples	Fibers	(Shruti, Pérez-Guevara, Elizalde-Martínez, et al. 2020)
Beer	–	100–5000 µm	0–14.3 MPs/kg	Fibers, fragments	(Kosuth, Mason, and Wattenberg 2018)
	–	–	2–79 MPs/dm^3	Fibers	(Liebezeit and Liebezeit 2014)
	–	–	12–109 MPs/dm^3	Fragments
	–	–	2–66 MPs/dm^3	Granules
	PA, PET, PEA	100–3000 µm	0–28 MPs/dm^3 88.9% samples	Fragments, fibers	(Shruti, Pérez-Guevara, Elizalde-Martínez, et al. 2020)
	–-	–	16 ± 15 MPs/dm^3	Fibers	(Lachenmeier et al. 2015)
			21 ± 16 MPs/dm^3	Fragments
			27 ± 10 MPs/dm^3	Granules
	PE, PS, cellulose	1–5000 µm	10–19 MPs/dm^3	Fibers	(Wiesheu et al. 2016)
	PE, PP, PAM	13.45–1740.24 µm	12–98 MPs/dm^3	Fibers	(Diaz-Basantes, Conesa, and Fullana et al. 2020)
		3.505–202.29 µm	50–920 MPs/dm^3	Fragments
White wine	PE	7–475 µm	< 5857 MPs/dm^3	Fragments, fibers	(Prata et al. 2020)
Energy drinks, soft drinks	PA, ABS, PEA	100–3000 µm	0–7 MPs/dm^3	Fibers	(Shruti, Pérez-Guevara, Elizalde-Martínez, et al. 2020)
Fish and shellfish
Fish	PP > PE > PS > PET > Nylon-6	–	–	Fragments, filaments, films	(Karami, Golieskardi, Bin Ho, et al. 2017)
	–	–	2.15 × 10⁻ ^8 g MPs/g biota	–	(O’Connor et al. 2022)
	–	–	6.54 × 10⁻ ^8 g MPs/g biota	–
	PP, PET	190–3800 µm	0–3 MPs/brand	Fragments, filaments, films	(Karami et al. 2018)
	–	–	10.1% fishes	Fragments	(Karthik et al. 2018)
	PVC, PET, nylon, silicone, epoxy resin	–	–	Fibers, fragments, spheres	(Peters et al. 2018)
	PS, PSU	< 1000 µm	1.98 ± 1.98 MPs/individual	Fibers	(Pan et al. 2022)
Shellfish	PE, PET, PA	5–5000 µm	4.3–57.2 MPs/individual	Fibers, fragments, pellets	(Li et al. 2015)
	PSU, PET	< 1000 µm	1.88 ± 1.44 MPs/individual	Fibers	(Pan et al. 2022)
	PP, PE, PS	100–200 µm	0.07 ± 0.3 MPs/individual 2.7 ± 12 MPs/kg	Fragments	(Daniel et al. 2021)
	PE, PP, cellulose	–	1.31 MPs/g	Fibers	(Fernández Severini et al. 2020)
	Rayon, PE, PP, PET, nylon	< 1000 µm	–	Fibers	(Chinfak et al. 2021)
	Rayon	100–200 µm	1.2–6.0 MPs/individual 0.8–4.4 MPs/g	Fibers	(Ding et al. 2020)
Spices
Salt	PET, PE, cellophane	<200 µm	7–681 MPs/kg	Fibers, fragments, pellets, sheets	(Yang et al. 2015)
	PE, PP	>149 µm	1–10 MPs/kg	Fragments, filaments, films	(Karami, Golieskardi, Choo, 2017)
	PET, PE, PP	10–3500 µm	50–280 MPs/kg	Fibers	(Iñiguez et al. 2017)
	PE, PP	20–5000 µm	8–102 MPs/kg	Fibers, fragments, films	(Gündoğdu, 2018)
	–	100–5000 µm	46.7–806 MPs/kg	Fibers	(Kosuth, Mason, and Wattenberg 2018
	PE, PP	< 500 µm	42 MPs/l	Fragment, irregular particles	(Manimozhi et al. 2022)
Sugar	–	> 40 µm	217 ± 123 MPs/kg	Fibers	(Liebezeit and Liebezeit 2013)
	ABS, PVC	< 300 μm	343.7 ± 32.08 MPs/kg	Fibers, spherules	(Afrin, Rahman, Akbor, et al. 2022)
Food from terrestrial animals
Honey	–	> 40 µm		Fibers	(Liebezeit and Liebezeit, 2013)
Milk	PES, PSU	< 500 µm	1–14 MPs/dm^3	Fibers	(Kutralam-Muniasamy et al. 2020)
Poultry meat	PS	–	4.0–18.7 MP-XPS/kg	Fibers	(Kedzierski et al. 2020)
Plants
Apple	–	1.56–3.19 µm	52600–307750 MPs/g	–	(Oliveri Conti et al. 2020)
Pear		1.87–2.59 µm	98325–302250 MPs/g
Carrot		1.36–2.00 µm	72175–130500 MPs/g
Broccoli		1.86–2.95 µm	65025–201750 MPs/g
Lettuce		2.18–2.78 µm	26375–75425 MPs/g

Abbreviations: ABS: poly(acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene); EVA: poly(ethylene-vinyl acetate); PE: polyethylene; PP: polypropylene; PS: polystyrene; PVC: poly(vinyl chloride); PET: poly(ethylene terephthalate); PA: polyamide; PBD: polybutadiene; PI: polyisoprene; PTFE: poly(tetrafluoroethylene); PC: polycarbonate; PEA: poly(ester amide); PAM: polyacrylamide; PSU: polysulfone; PES: polyethersulfone.

Table 5. Health effects of microplastic.

Organism	Body part/system	MP		Health effects	References
		Type	Size
Scleractinian coral	Immune system	PS	1 μm	The decrease in the immune enzyme (e.g., alkaline phosphatase)	(Tang et al. 2018)
Zebrafish larvae	Bones	PE	20–27 μm	Increase of incidence of skeletal deformities, developmental disorder of caudal fin/scales	(Tarasco et al. 2022)
	Gut			Decrease of goblet cells, enteritis
	Column and tail	PS	10 μm	Body deformation	(de Marco et al. 2022)
	Eyes			Damage of integrity of the visual structure
Zebrafish	Gut	PP	50 ± 26 μm and 200 ± 90 μm	Gut damage, inflammation	(Zhao et al. 2021)
	Gut	PS	5 μm	Gut damage, inflammation, changes in the gut microbiome and tissue metabolic profiles	(Qiao et al. 2019b)
	Gut	PS	0.5 μm	The increase of the volume of mucus, the change in the diversity of microbiota	(Jin et al. 2018)
			50 μm	The increase of the volume of mucus, the change in the diversity of microbiota, inflammation
	Heart	PS	3–12 µm	Decrease of heart frequency of ventricular contraction	(Dimitriadi et al. 2021)
Mice	Raw 264.7 cells (macrophage cells)	PP	20 μm	Cytotoxic effects	(Hwang et al. 2019)
	Raw 264.7 cells (macrophage cells)	PET	191.6 (± 0.9) nm	Inhibition of lysosomal activities, reduction of cellular viability	(Deng et al. 2022)
			1.85 (± 1.02) μm	Proinflammatory response, reduction of cellular viability
	GC-2 cells (spermatocytes)	PS	5 µm	Mitochondrial damage, damage of the mitochondrial genome integrity	(Liu et al. 2022)
	Bone marrow cells	PS	5 µm	Decrease of white blood cell count, hematotoxicity, change of gene expression in bone marrow cells, disturbances in T cell homeostasis pathway, jak/stat pathway and metabolic pathway	(Sun, Xu, et al. 2021)
	Microglial cells of the brain	PS	0.2 and 2 μm	Accumulation in microglial	(Kwon et al. 2022)
	Kidney	PS	0.3 and 0.6 and 4 µm	Histological damage of the kidney, inflammation	(Meng et al. 2022)
Mice	Kidney	PS	2 µm	The histopathological lesions, the higher levels of endoplasmic reticulum stress, inflammatory markers and autophagy-related proteins	(Wang, Lee, et al. 2021)
	Spleen	PMMA	1.4 and 4.6 µm	Spleen enlargement	(Tomazic-Jezic Merritt, and Umbreit 2001)
	Ovaries	PS	0.7918 ± 0.00273 µm	The inflammation of ovaries, induction of inflammation and oxidative stress, the increase of the IL-6 level, the decrease of malondialdehyde (MDA) level, the reduce of the number of antral follicles, the reduction of the quality of oocytes	(Liu et al. 2022)
	Liver	PP	5 µm	The damage of liver structure and function, pyroptosis and ferroptosis, inflammation	(Mu et al. 2022)
	Guts	PE	10–20 µm	Amendments of gut microbiota	(Zaheer et al. 2022)
	Lungs	PS	5 µm	The pulmonary fibrosis	(Li, Zhang, et al. 2022)
Sheep	Red blood cells	PS	< 5 µm	Hemolytic effects	(Hwang et al. 2020)
			6–8 µm	Cytotoxicity
Human	Serum albumin	PVC	5 μm	The destruction of the construction and function of proteins	(Ju et al. 2020)
	Peripheral blood lymphocytes	PE	10–45 µm	Genotoxic effects	(Çobanoğlu et al. 2021)
	Peripheral blood mononuclear cells	PP	20 μm	Cytotoxic effects	(Hwang et al. 2019)
	Microglial HMC-3 cells (macrophage cells)	PS	0.2 and 2 μm	Changes in cellular morphology and immune responses, apoptosis	(W. Kwon et al. 2022)
	Intestinal epithelial Caco-2	PS	0.1 μm	Inhibition of ABC transporter	( Wu et al. 2019)
			5 μm	Mitochondrial depolarization
	Intestinal epithelial Caco-2	PE	6.2 ± 2.0 and 30.5 ± 10.5 μm	Reduction of cell viability	(Gautam et al. 2022)
	Lung epithelial A549 cells
	HaCaT keratinocyte cells (epidermis)			Pro-inflammatory effects
Human	Small intestinal epithelial cell HIEC-6	PS	0.1 and 0.5 and 1.5 μm	The membrane damage	(Zhang et al. 2022)
	Colonic epithelial cell CCD841CoN
	Intestinal CCD-18Co cells	PS	2 μm	The cancer risk, metabolic changes	(Bonanomi et al. 2022)
	Kidney Proximal Tubular Epithelial Cells HK-2	PS	2 µm	The inflammation, higher protein levels of LC3, Beclin 1, mitochondrial protein Bad, higher endoplasmic reticulum stress	(Wang, Lee, et al. 2021)
	Dermal fibroblasts	PS	3 μm	The reduction of viability (40%)	(Hwang et al. 2020)
	Umbilical vein endothelial cells HUVEC	PS	0.5 μm	Cytotoxicity, autophagy	(Lee et al. 2021)

Abbreviations: PS: polystyrene; PE: polyethylene; PP: polypropylene; PET: poly(ethylene terephthalate); PVC: poly(vinyl chloride); PMMA: poly(methyl methacrylate).

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