Science of the Total Environment 806 (2022) 150263

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Science of the Total Environment

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Review

Microplastics: A review of analytical methods, occurrence and

characteristics in food, and potential toxicities to biota
Cui-Lan Bai, Liang-Ying Liu, Yi-Bin Hu, Eddy Y. Zeng, Ying Guo ⁎
Guangdong Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution and Health, and Center for Environmental Microplastics Studies, School of Environment, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China

H I G H L I G H T S G R A P H I C A L A B S T R A C T

• KOH is the most used digestion solution

to extract MPs from food.
• Blue and fibers are the commonly ob-
served characteristics of MPs in food.
• It is not clear whether MPs exposure has
adverse health effects on humans.
• People may eat ~50 plastic bags due to
MPs pollution in food every year.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Microplastics (MPs) are ubiquitous in various environment compartments, including food. Here, we collected re-
Received 31 May 2021 search reports of MPs in food published during 2010–2020, and summarized the analytical methods developed
Received in revised form 6 September 2021 and utilized by researchers (e.g., digestion, separation and identification, as well as related QA/QC measures im-
Accepted 6 September 2021
plemented), the occurrence, and the characteristics of MPs in six kinds of food. The potential effects on biota from
Available online 17 September 2021
exposure to MPs were also reviewed. The results showed that most researchers digested food samples using
Editor: Jay Gan chemical solutions such as HNO3, H2O2, KOH, or NaOH. FT-IR and Raman spectroscopy were the main technique
for identifying MPs, and microscopes were used to count MP particles. The abundances MPs were in the ranges of
0–5860, 2.00–1100, 0–698, 4.00–18.7, 0–5.68 × 104 and 900–3000 particles/kg in beverages, condiments, honey,
Keywords: meat, seafood and vegetables, respectively. The “maximum” annual human intake of MPs from these foods is ap-
Microplastics proximately 1.42 × 105–1.54 × 105 particles/capita, equivalent to the consumption of 50 plastic bags (size:
Food 0.04 mm × 250 mm × 400 mm, density: 0.98 g/cm3) each year. Blue-colored and fiber-shaped MP particles
Analytical methods were the most commonly observed in food, predominated by PA, PE, PES, PET and PP types. Toxicity studies in-
Characteristics
dicated that MPs, additives of MPs and adsorbents or microorganisms on the surfaces of MPs were all somewhat
Toxicities
toxic to cells or biota. Exposure to MPs may induce oxidative stress, inflammation, neurotoxicity, and reproduc-
tive toxicity, and change the structure of intestinal microflora in cells or biota. Therefore, we call for more inves-
tigation into the residual, excretion and bioavailability of MPs or related absorbents/additives in biota and
humans.
© 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

⁎ Corresponding author at: School of Environment, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.
E-mail address: yingguo2004@jnu.edu.cn (Y. Guo).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150263
0048-9697/© 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
C.-L. Bai, L.-Y. Liu, Y.-B. Hu et al. Science of the Total Environment 806 (2022) 150263

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Analytical methods of microplastics in food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.1. Sample digestion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2. Density separation and filtration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.3. Identification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.3.1. Visual identification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.3.2. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.3.3. Raman spectroscopy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.3.4. Other methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.4. Quality assurance and quality control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.5. Issues and difficulties in microplastics analysis in food . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3. Occurrence of microplastics in food . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.1. Microplastics in beverages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.2. Microplastics in condiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.3. Microplastics in honey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.4. Microplastics in meat and seafood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.5. Microplastics in vegetables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4. Characterization of microplastics in food . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.1. Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.2. Polymer type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.3. Shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.4. Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
5. Potential toxicities upon exposure to microplastics for biota . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5.1. Adverse effects of microplastics particles to biota . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5.2. Toxicity of adsorbed substances on microplastics to biota . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5.3. Toxicity of leaching additives from microplastics to biota . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
5.4. Microorganisms on the surface of microplastics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
5.5. Human exposure to microplastics through food . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
6. Conclusions and perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Declaration of competing interest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Appendix A. Supplementary data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

1. Introduction Microplastics are ubiquitous in the environment, so biota may

Plastic products are lightweight and resistant to abrasion, thus they
are widely used in the packaging, building, automotive and electronic
engineering industries, among which packaging bags accounted for
~40% of the total consumption in 2018 (Europe, 2019). Global plastic
production was 335, 348 and 359 million metric tons in 2016, 2017
and 2018, respectively (Europe, 2017; Europe, 2018; Europe, 2019). If
those plastic products were not properly managed during usage and/
or upon completion of life cycles, they may eventually become plastic
garbage, such as microplastics (MPs).
Microplastics are plastic pieces with aerodynamic diameters < 5 mm.
They are widespread in aquatic, terrestrial, and atmospheric environ-
ments worldwide (Dris et al., 2016; Klein et al., 2015; Liu et al., 2020;
Schell et al., 2020), even in remote Antarctic and Arctic regions (Isobe
et al., 2017; Morgana et al., 2018). Since the first discovery of MPs in
1974 (Colton et al., 1974), most studies have focused on the occurrence
of MPs in aquatic environment, such as oceans, seawater (Green et al.,
2018) and rivers (Lechner et al., 2014; Mai et al., 2019; Vianello et al.,
2018; Zhao et al., 2019), or in aquatic organisms, such as bivalves (Teng
et al., 2019), fish (Baalkhuyur et al., 2018), shrimp (Hossain et al.,
2020) and seaweeds (Q. Li et al., 2020). Occurrences of MPs in terrestrial
organisms and atmosphere have gradually become popular research
areas in recent years, particularly in soil, birds, and terrestrial plants
(Carlin et al., 2020; Moller et al., 2020; Rillig et al., 2019). Although data
have been obtained for MPs in several types of seafood (e.g., bivalves,
fish, and shrimp) (Z. Fu et al., 2020), the data on MPs in other foodstuffs
people consume daily are limited, especially meat and vegetables. One
reason is the lack of standard methods for processing MPs in food.
be contaminated and affected by MPs through the food web or
environmental exposure. For example, MPs could be translocated
from GIT (abbreviations of all substance in the present review are
shown in Table S1of the Supplementary materials), and then
enter the tissues and hemolymph in zebra mussels (Magni
et al., 2018). Microplastics can be accumulated in the intestines,
change the composition of the intestinal bacteria, and lead to
metabolic disorders in experimental mice (Jin et al., 2019; L. Lu
et al., 2018). Microplastics also serve as vectors for other chemi-
cal pollutants and pathogens that may be more dangerous to
biota. For instance, Virsek et al. (2017) first found Aeromonas
salmonicida, a bacterium causing fish disease, on MPs collected
from the North Adriatic Sea. Humans are also exposed to MPs
thought a variety of pathways. It was estimated that up to
11,000 MP particles were ingested by the consumers through
shellfish consumption in Europe every year (Van Cauwenberghe
and Janssen, 2014). Therefore, the occurrence of MPs in food is
important to evaluate potential effect on biota or humans ex-
posed to MPs.
In the present review, we summarized research reports, pub-
lished between 2010 and 2020 on MPs in food, including analytical
methods developed and/or used by researchers, the occurrence and
characteristics of MPs in food, as well as the potential effects on
biota upon exposure to MPs. We aimed to provide a reference for
the establishment of standard analytical methods for MPs in the fu-
ture and to better understand the occurrence and characteristics of
MPs in food and the potential doses of human exposure to MPs
through food consumption.

2
C.-L. Bai, L.-Y. Liu, Y.-B. Hu et al.
2. Analytical methods of microplastics in food
An increasing number of research reports on MPs in food were
published between 2010 and 2020 (Fig. S1). From the database
Web of Science, we entered keywords “microplastics/plastics/
microbeads, and food/beverage/milk/bottle water/mineral water/
condiment/salt/sugar/honey/meat/chicken/pork/beef/seafood/bi-
valve/fish/shrimp/oyster/mussel/clams/crab/vegetable/nori/plant”
to search for published literature. A total of 77 relevant food studies
were collected and food samples were divided into six groups: bev-
erages (n = 10), condiments (n = 8), honey (n = 4), meat (n = 3),
vegetables (n = 3), and seafood (n = 52) (Table S2). The sum of the
first five groups was defined as non-seafood. The main processes for
MPs analysis in food include sample digestion, density separation
and filtration, identification, and QA/QC.
2.1. Sample digestion
Various digestion solutions were used to remove organic and inor-
ganic matters in food to facilitate the observation and identification of
MPs later. Organic matters and particulate impurities in food were
digested by different acidic, alkaline or oxidizing solutions. Overall, di-
gestion solutions were used in 60 of the 77 studies (Table S2), and
KOH was the most commonly used, followed by H2O2 and HNO3
(Fig. 1A). However, in term of non-seafood, H2O2 was used the most
(32%), while HNO3, KOH, NaOH and enzymes were not commonly used.
The degradation degree of MPs in food depends on types and con-
centrations of the digestion solutions. For example, the colors of LDPE,
PP and PS MPs were changed and their surfaces were corroded slightly
when HNO3 was used for digestion (Karami et al., 2017; Yu et al., 2019).
Studies by Yu et al. (2019) and Ribeiro et al. (2020) suggested that PET
may be degraded by HNO3 or KOH.
In addition, different digestion methods have their own advantages
and disadvantages. Alkaline digestion (KOH or NaOH) is the most fre-
quently used, particularly in seafood. Rapid digestion of organic matter
in food is its common advantage, but it may easily destroy nylon, PE and
PES because of the high pH (Cole et al., 2014). Oxidized digestion (H2O2)
not only dissolves several MPs at >60 °C (Munno et al., 2018), but also
produces a large amount of foam during the digestion process. Acidic
digestion (HNO3) may melt MPs at high temperature, resulting in low
recovery (4% ± 3%) (Avio et al., 2015), and the digestion efficiency of
HNO3 is obviously better than that of H2O2 or NaOH at the same
temperature (Claessens et al., 2013). Finally, enzyme digestion does
not destroy any MPs but it is expensive (Cole et al., 2014). Therefore,
researchers are trying to develop a method of combined digestion
solution at low temperature, and with rapid and simple operation
(Roch and Brinker, 2017; Yu et al., 2019).
Different digestion solutions are utilized according to the character-
istics of food types. For food with less organic and solid matters, simple
filtering or digesting with a weak solution is sufficient to separate MPs
from food samples. Several kinds of beverages were directly filtered
without digestions (Table S2). The abundances of MPs in beers were
at the same order of magnitude with or without digestion solution
(Diaz-Basantes et al., 2020; Lachenmeier et al., 2015).
Fig. 1. The proportions of studies used in different (A) digestion solutions, (B) separation solutions, (C) identification methods.
3
Science of the Total Environment 806 (2022) 150263
The situation for meat and vegetables is relatively complicated as they
are usually rich in cellulose, protein or lipids. Microplastics were extracted
from nori by using cellulase, alcalase and H2O2 solutions (Q. Li et al.,
2020). No digestion solution, but only deionized or desalinated water
was used in the measurement of MPs in Chinese chicken meat, Fucus
vesiculosus and lettuce (Huang et al., 2020; Li et al., 2019; Sundbæk
et al., 2018), French chicken meat (Kedzierski et al., 2020), and chicken
gizzards (Huerta Lwanga et al., 2017). For seafood, digestion solutions
are necessary, usually as KOH, H2O2 and HNO3, or their mixtures.
2.2. Density separation and filtration
A general method of density separation is to float MPs on the separa-
tion solution, which separates MPs from sand, glass, or bone shells. This
process was not used in most food studies, and NaCl and NaI were more
commonly used than KI (Fig. 1B). The NaCl solution (1.00–1.20 g/cm3)
is possible to separate PP and PA MPs, which has a density of
0.80–1.13 g/cm3 (F. Stock et al., 2019). However, it is difficult to separate
PVC and PET MPs, which have a density of ~1.40 g/cm3 in some foods,
such as Turkish salts (Gundogdu, 2018). NaI (1.8 g/cm3) is more expen-
sive, corrosive and dangerous than NaCl (F. Stock et al., 2019), and can
separate MPs with higher density. Therefore, it is necessary to use a suit-
able separation solution according to the potential MP polymer types.
Filter membranes with different pore sizes and materials were used
for different foods (Table S2). Microplastics in white wine collected
from different regions of Italy were filtered with 0.7 and 0.1 μm mem-
branes, and the final abundance was reported as 31 and 182 particles/
L, respectively (Prata et al., 2020). In two beer studies, the abundance
of MPs was higher in beer treated with 0.8 μm membranes (64 parti-
cles/L) (Lachenmeier et al., 2015) than 11 μm membranes (4.05 parti-
cles/L) (Kosuth et al., 2018). In addition, the abundances of MPs
filtered by <5 μm membranes were significantly higher than those of
≥5 μm (p < 0.05) in all bivalve samples in the present review. These
studies indicate that the abundance of MPs increased with the decrease
of membrane pore sizes. A smaller pore size is a better choice when the
membrane is not easy to be blocked by samples.
The pore sizes of membranes used in filtration ranged from 0.1 μm
(Prata et al., 2020) to 63 μm (Savoca et al., 2020) in the present review,
and were 0.1–11 μm for non-seafood, and 0.2–63 μm for seafood
(<10 μm accounted for 67%), respectively. Therefore, <10 μm filter
membranes were more commonly used for MPs analysis in food
samples.
2.3. Identification
At present, it is difficult for researchers to identify and count MPs
with the naked eye. Various microscopic and spectroscopic instruments
are used to identify colors, shapes, sizes, types, and spectral characteris-
tics of MPs. Visual identification, FT-IR, Raman spectroscopy, and other
techniques were used to identify MPs in food samples (Fig. 1C).
2.3.1. Visual identification
Visual identification is usually used to distinguish the colors, shapes,
and sizes (>1 mm) of MPs by vision or microscopes (Gong and Xie,
C.-L. Bai, L.-Y. Liu, Y.-B. Hu et al.
2020). Visual identification was applied for all kinds of food. This
method is simple and low-cost, but it has subjectivity in MPs judgment.
For example, transparent MPs may be ignored during microscope obser-
vation. Colored natural fibers with the sizes ≥ 50 μm and minerals were
also easily mistakenly identified as MPs (Song et al., 2015). Moreover,
visual identification was considered to have high error rate (>20%) in
experiments (Eriksen et al., 2013). Lenz et al. (2015) used Raman spec-
troscopy to re-identify visually recognized MPs. Only 68% was con-
firmed as MPs, and the success rate of fibers was 75%, greater than
that of particles (64%). These experiments indicate that visual identifica-
tion has a high error rate, and may be more suitable for fibers. Besides,
this method cannot identify polymer.
2.3.2. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy
FT-IR, including ATR-FT-IR and μ-FT-IR, is used for MPs identification.
The advantage of this method is that in some cases, it can simulta-
neously detect the abundance, identify polymer types, and infer chem-
ical characteristics and structures of MPs in samples. FT-IR can identify
MPs < 1000 μm that visual identification cannot. FT-IR was used in 35
of the 77 summarized studies, for all six kinds of food. The matching
rates of the spectrum were >60% (Table S2).
However, FT-IR method still has some disadvantages. Compared to
visual way, FT-IR takes longer time (e.g., 8 to 10 times longer for envi-
ronmental samples) (Song et al., 2015). The moisture in samples and
the color of MPs may affect the identification (Gong and Xie, 2020).
ATR-FT-IR can obtain a better spectrum than μ-FT-IR for MPs with irreg-
ular shapes and has high sensitivity, but it is commonly used to analyze
MPs > 500 μm (Li et al., 2007; Löder et al., 2015; Moller et al., 2020).
ATR-FT-IR is improper to identify MPs < 20 μm (Gong and Xie, 2020),
which can be identified by μ-FT-IR with shorter measurement time
than traditional FT-IR (Löder et al., 2015).
2.3.3. Raman spectroscopy
Raman spectroscopy was used for MPs identification in beverages,
condiments, honey and seafood (Table S2). It can analyze MPs with
sizes < 1 μm (Ossmann et al., 2017). However, it requires high-purity
samples. The presence of additives, pigments, and fluorescent sub-
stances in samples during the identification process would affect the ac-
curacy of detection (Lenz et al., 2015). Moreover, Raman spectroscopy is
more expensive than FT-IR (Gong and Xie, 2020), and it was only used
in 2 papers which reported ≥70% matching rates (Fang et al., 2019;
Hermabessiere et al., 2019).
2.3.4. Other methods
In addition to above commonly used identification technologies,
other methods were also used to detect MPs in food (Table S2), such
as ATR-MIR, EDX, hot needle, LSCM, SEM, SEM-EDS and SEM-EDX.
SEM has better resolution than visual identification, FT-IR and
Raman spectroscopy, and it can identify MPs with sizes from nanome-
ters to millimeters (Schwaferts et al., 2019). When using SEM, samples
need to be anhydrous; otherwise, water may interfere with the detec-
tion. Meanwhile, SEM coupled with EDS or EDX can be used to identify
MPs in milk and seafood (Table S2). SEM has some disadvantages. For
example, it is time consuming to prepare samples, and thermo-
unstable MPs (e.g., PVC) can easily be softened or burned by high-
energy electron beams (W. Fu et al., 2020).
Besides, joint identification methods were used in 13 studies that in-
cluded FT-IR and Raman spectroscopy, FT-IR and hot needle, μ-Raman
and SEM-EDS, μ-Raman and SEM-EDX, etc. (Table S2). The use of joint
identification is increasing yearly, indicating its strong application po-
tential in the future.
Therefore, a fixed standard method is not available for the identifica-
tion of MPs in food, and different methods may be used for the same
food (Table S2). FT-IR and Raman spectroscopy are not recommended
when there are many samples as they are time consuming, whereas
FT-IR is recommended if samples had strong fluorescence background
4
Science of the Total Environment 806 (2022) 150263
intensity, or contained additives. However, if the sizes of MPs are
>1000 μm and the number of samples is large, visual identification is
a better choice.
2.4. Quality assurance and quality control
QA/QC is an important quality management in experimental pro-
cess. To minimize the influence of MPs pollution from laboratory envi-
ronment (e.g., indoor air and wearing of experimenters), sample
pretreatment should be performed in fume hood cleaned with ≥70% al-
cohol, and reagents should be filtered before use. The experimenters
have to wear nitrile gloves and pure cotton clothing, and complete the
experiment as quickly as possible. Still, not all the researchers had per-
formed those precautions during MPs analysis. For example, less than
half of the reviewed studies reported fume hood usage, or nitrile gloves
and pure cotton clothes wearing during experiments. Procedure blanks
or positive blanks were carried out in most reviewed studies. Besides,
MPs with light weight and small size may be easily overlooked by re-
searchers in the pre-treatment, observation and calculation, resulting
in a low recovery rate (60%–104%) (Table S2).
2.5. Issues and difficulties in microplastics analysis in food
First, the types and mixing ratio of digestion solutions may affect
analytical results. Insufficient data are available to discuss whether alka-
line solutions can shorten the digestion time or reduce the degradation
of MPs in non-seafood. Different solutions and temperatures may cause
damages to MPs. For example, strong acids or alkalis may corrode the
surface of MPs, change their color, and induce false negative/positive
results. Second, the membrane pore size and the choice of separation
solutions could affect the eventual abundance of MPs. Smaller MPs can
pass through membranes with larger pores, so the results may be
underestimated. Some researchers choose different membrane sizes to
perform sequential filtration to avoid the above phenomenon, such as
MPs in beer and honeys (Liebezeit and Liebezeit, 2013; Liebezeit and
Liebezeit, 2014; Muhlschlegel et al., 2017). Finally, there may be MPs
in air, equipment, reagents, and clothes worn by experimenter that
may contaminate sample during the experiment. A strict QA/QC perfor-
mance during analysis is necessary.
To sum up, KOH digestion solution, pore size of filter membrane <
10 μm and FT-IR were widely used in the analysis of MPs in food
(Fig. 1A and C). Meanwhile, various units were used for MPs abundance,
such as “fibers/granules/fragments/particles/items” per volume or
weight. So the definition of the unit is necessary, especially in seafood
(fish, bivalves, etc.), to facilitate the comparison among different stud-
ies.
3. Occurrence of microplastics in food
Microplastics were found in all six kinds of food samples in the pres-
ent review (Table S3). To date, limited data are available on the occur-
rence of MPs in other foods, such as rice, noodles, and bread among
staple foods as well as coffee and tea when combined milk. Generally,
the abundance of MPs varied greatly in different foods, even at orders
of magnitude.
3.1. Microplastics in beverages
Microplastics in beverages may come from water source, air, pro-
ductive process, and the release after long-term storage in plastic bottles
(Liebezeit and Liebezeit, 2014). At present, MPs in beverages have been
reported in studies from the U.S., China, Ecuador, Germany, and Mexico,
and were found in beer, mineral/bottled water, cold tea, energy drinks,
milk, and soft drinks (Table S3).
Microplastics in beer were firstly reported in Germany, and the
abundance ranges were 2–79 (average: 16) fibers/L, 12–109 (21)
C.-L. Bai, L.-Y. Liu, Y.-B. Hu et al.
fragments/L, and 2–66 (27) granules/L, respectively (Liebezeit and
Liebezeit, 2014; Liebezeit and Liebezeit, 2015). The abundance
range of MPs in beer was ND–28 particles/L in Mexico (Shruti et al.,
2020). The lower concentration of MPs in Mexico than that in
Germany may be attributed to the different filter membranes
(11 μm for Mexican beer and 0.8 μm for Germany beer). Another pos-
sibility is that the MPs in German beer were observed through a mi-
croscope alone, which may overestimate the abundance of MPs.
Their results indicate that MPs are ubiquitous in beers. Besides
beer, the abundances of MPs were also low in cold tea, soft drinks,
energy drinks, and milk in Mexico, which were 1–6, ND–7, ND–6,
and 6.5 particles/L, respectively (Kutralam-Muniasamy et al., 2020;
Shruti et al., 2020). In addition, a relative higher abundance of MPs
was found in soft drinks and milk in Ecuador (32 and 40 particles/L,
respectively) (Diaz-Basantes et al., 2020), partly as the using of
smaller pore size membranes.
Microplastics were also reported in different bottled mineral waters
in Germany (Schymanski et al., 2018). The average abundances of MPs
were 11, 50, 118, and 14 particles/L in mineral water stored in beverage
cartons, glass bottles, returnable plastic bottles, and single-use bottles,
respectively (Schymanski et al., 2018). Obviously, the average abun-
dance of MPs was the highest for mineral water in returnable plastic
bottle, which was due to the MPs released from the repeated usage of
plastic bottles. Besides, an average abundance of 325 particles/L was re-
ported in another bottled water study, in which 259 samples of eleven
brands were collected from nine countries (Mason et al., 2018). These
MPs in bottled water may be partly attributed to the MPs pollution in
water source. For example, the average abundances of MPs in drinking
water were 0.0007 particles/L in Germany and 338–628 particles/L in
Czechoslovakia, respectively (Mintenig et al., 2019; Pivokonsky et al.,
2018).
3.2. Microplastics in condiments
Microplastics were found in sugar and salts (Table S3). Sugar is di-
vided into refined and unrefined types (Liebezeit and Liebezeit, 2013).
The abundance of MPs in refined sugar was an order of magnitude
lower than that in unrefined sugar (Liebezeit and Liebezeit, 2013),
which may be explained by their more purification steps to reduce im-
purities.
Salts include lake salts, rock salts, sea salts and well salts.
Microplastics in salts have been reported in studies carried out in
China, India, Spain, and the U.S. (Table S3). The average abundances of
MPs ranged from 9.77 (Lee et al., 2019) to 212 particles/kg in sea salts
(Kosuth et al., 2018). In another study, the average abundances of MPs
were 37.5, 11.8 and 46 particles/kg in lake salts, rock salts and sea
salts collected in Turkey, respectively (Gundogdu, 2018). Additionally,
MPs in Chinese sea salts were 550–681 particles/kg, which was greater
than those in Chinese lake salts (43–364 particles/kg) and rock salts/
well salts (7–204 particles/kg) (Yang et al., 2015). Obviously, in most
cases, abundances of MPs in sea salts are higher than those in lake or
rock/well salts. The maximum abundance of MPs was <100 particles/
kg in salts in all study areas, except for sea salts in the U.S., table salts
in China and sea salts and well salts in Spain (Gundogdu, 2018;
Iniguez et al., 2017; Kosuth et al., 2018; Yang et al., 2015).
3.3. Microplastics in honey
The occurrence of MPs in honey was reported in four studies, in-
volved samples from different countries, including Ecuador,
Switzerland, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Bulgaria, Tuscany,
etc. (Table S3). Microplastics were detectable in all honey samples, but
the results were affected by the MPs contamination in laboratory
Liebezeit and Liebezeit (2015), or in air and worker bees when the re-
searches collected nectar. Muhlschlegel et al. (2017) also indicated
that the abundances of MPs finally detected in honey were not
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Science of the Total Environment 806 (2022) 150263
significantly different from the blank samples. The MPs abundances in
honey were 10–660 fibers/kg, ND–82 fragments/kg, or 43.2 particles/
kg (converted by density of honey) in those studies, respectively
(Diaz-Basantes et al., 2020; Liebezeit and Liebezeit, 2013; Liebezeit
and Liebezeit, 2015).
3.4. Microplastics in meat and seafood
Presently, MPs in meat were mainly reported for seafood or their
GITs (Koongolla et al., 2020; Wu et al., 2020), and very limited data
were available for other meat, such as chicken and chicken gizzards
(Huang et al., 2020; Huerta Lwanga et al., 2017; Kedzierski et al.,
2020). A value range of 4.0–18.7 particles/kg (XPS) was reported in
chicken packed with XPS boxes, which may be ingested by consumer
(Kedzierski et al., 2020). In addition, MPs in chicken gizzards were
10.2 particles/gizzard, accounting for 16% of the total plastics (Huerta
Lwanga et al., 2017). These results indicate that abundance of MPs in
chickens is affected by the packaging materials, chicken feed and envi-
ronmental pollution.
Microplastics in seafood are the most popular topic, and were re-
ported in 52 articles (edible parts), involved bivalves, fish species,
shrimps, and other seafood (Table S3). MPs were prevalent in soft tis-
sues of bivalves, and the nonedible parts in fish and crabs, such as
GITs and stomachs. In the edible parts, the abundance of MPs ranged
from ND-63.3, ND-36.7 and 0.39–7.8 particles/individual in bivalves
(Li et al., 2015; Webb et al., 2019), fish (Ferreira et al., 2018; Maes
et al., 2020) and shrimp (Daniel et al., 2020; Hossain et al., 2020), re-
spectively. Additionally, more MPs were detected in GITs than in the ed-
ible parts for fish and shrimps.
3.5. Microplastics in vegetables
Vegetables may also be contaminated by MPs. Three studies re-
ported MPs in vegetables (Li et al., 2019; Q. Li et al., 2020; Sundbæk
et al., 2018). The average abundance of MPs was 1800 particles/kg in
commercial seaweed nori (Q. Li et al., 2020). The MPs in vegetables
may come from the plastic contaminated farmland (Chen et al., 2020).
For example, PS MPs were added to Fucus vesiculosus and lettuce, and
then were observed in the internal tissues of those plants (Li et al.,
2019; Sundbæk et al., 2018).
4. Characterization of microplastics in food
To describe MPs pollution in food, the characteristics of MPs, includ-
ing color, polymer type, shape and size, should be mentioned. Small and
transparent MPs in food can be ingested by people easily as they are dif-
ficult to identify with the naked eye. The size and type of MPs may affect
the adsorption of pollutants and pathogenic bacteria (Naik et al., 2019;
Q. Wang et al., 2020). In addition, it was reported fibers were more toxic
than fragments and beads (Qiao et al., 2019). Therefore, it is necessary
to know the characteristics of MPs in food to better understand their oc-
currence and potential toxicities.
4.1. Color
Among various colored MPs, blue MPs were reported in most sea-
food studies (52.8%), and in all non-seafood except for chicken and re-
fined sugar (Kedzierski et al., 2020; Liebezeit and Liebezeit, 2013)
(Table S3). Besides, blue MPs were the predominant in beverages, con-
diments and seafood (Fig. 2A). The ubiquitous of blue MPs in food may
be partly attributed to the blue work clothes and masks worn by
workers during food production. The red MPs were also widespread
and reported in 25 food studies, especially in beverages. In most
seafood, the colors of MPs were diverse but blue and transparent color
were the majority (Fig. 2A), similar to a study of seawater (Gago et al.,
2018).
C.-L. Bai, L.-Y. Liu, Y.-B. Hu et al. Science of the Total Environment 806 (2022) 150263

100 Blue accounted for 23%–52% (Gundogdu, 2018; Sathish et al., 2020;
Red
Black
Selvam et al., 2020). PP was also widespread in both Turkish salts
80 Green (Gundogdu, 2018) and Chinese factory-processed nori (Q. Li et al.,
Transparent 2020). The different polymer types in salts indicate the different
Colors (%)

Others
60 compositions of MPs in oceans, wells, and lakes in different coun-
tries. Besides, PE and PP were the frequently detected in seafood
40 A (Fig. 2B). The abundance of the remaining polymer types was
small, such as PEMA, PVK and UI (Dowarah et al., 2020; Gündoğdu
20 et al., 2020; Zitouni et al., 2020).

0
4.3. Shape
Beverages Condiments seafoods
The shapes of MPs were reported in >80% of the summarized
100 PE studies, which were described as ball/sphere, bead, granule/particles/
PET
pellet, fiber/filament/thread, film/sheet/laminas/flake, foam, frag-
Polymer Types (%)

PP
80 ment, and irregular, according to their morphological characteristics
PS
PES (Table S3). Fibers were the most reported shape, followed by frag-
60 PA
Others ments (Fig. 2C).
Fiber was the only MPs shape in cold tea, energy drinks and soft
40 drinks (Shruti et al., 2020) or milk (97.5%) (Kutralam-Muniasamy
B et al., 2020). Fibers and fragments accounted for high proportions
20 of MPs in salts from China (100%), Indian (83%) or Turkey (>70%)
(Gundogdu, 2018; Lee et al., 2019; Sathish et al., 2020; Selvam
0 et al., 2020). Besides, the two MP types were also found in seafood
Beverages Condiments Meats Seafoods Vegetables and vegetables (Fig. 2C), as well as in honey and meat (Table S3).
The shapes may provide a reference for possible source of MPs.
100 Most fibers may derive from textiles. After washing, the fibers of
Fiber
Fragment textiles are discharged with sewage, and then contaminate aquatic
80 Granule environment. A recent study demonstrated that fibers were detect-
Film
able in tap water (Tong et al., 2020). Strand-shaped MPs in sea
Shapes (%)

Others
60 salts were likely from fishing nets or ropes in seawater, and other
sheet-shaped or irregular MPs may come from the breaking of plastic
C packing bags or materials (Zhang et al., 2015). Moreover, fibers and
40
fragments in honey were likely derived from crush fabrics and plastic
bags used by beekeepers to repel mites (Liebezeit and Liebezeit,
20
2013; Muhlschlegel et al., 2017).

0
4.4. Size
Beverages Condiments Seafoods Vegetables

Size distribution of MPs in food was reported in 61 reviewed studies.

Fig. 2. Percentage of characters of MPs in different food: (A) colors, (B) shapes, and
(C) polymer types.
Data source: Abidli et al. (2019), Baechler et al. (2019), Berglund et al. (2019), Brate et al.
(2018), Cho et al. (2019), Covernton et al. (2019), Daniel et al. (2020), Dowarah et al.
(2020), Gedik and Eryasar (2020), Gomiero et al. (2019), Gundogdu (2018), Gündoğdu
et al. (2020), Huerta Lwanga et al. (2017), Iniguez et al. (2017), Jahan et al. (2019), Karami
et al. (2018), Kedzierski et al. (2020), Khoironi et al. (2018), Kosuth et al. (2018),
Kutralam-Muniasamy et al. (2020), Lee et al. (2019), Li et al. (2018), Q. Li et al. (2020), Lv
et al. (2020), Martinelli et al. (2020), Mason et al. (2018), McCoy et al. (2020), Naji et al.
(2018), Patterson et al. (2019), Phuong Ngoc et al. (2019), Phuong et al. (2018), Piarulli
et al. (2019), Qu et al. (2018), An (2019), Sathish et al. (2020), Schymanski et al. (2018),
Selvam et al. (2020), Shruti et al. (2020), Teng et al. (2019), Webb et al. (2019), and Yang
et al. (2015).
4.2. Polymer type
Sixty-six types of MPs were reported in over 50 food studies
(Table S3). PA, PE, PES, PET and PP were the majority polymer types in
food. None study reported the main polymer types in honey and meat
gizzard. PE, PET and PP were more abundant in beverages, condiments,
and seafood (Fig. 2B). For example, PET was predominant in mineral
water, accounting for 84% of MPs (Schymanski et al., 2018), as well as
PET and PP in some beer and mineral water samples (Mason et al.,
2018; Shruti et al., 2020). Because PET and PP are used for caps and bot-
tles (Schymanski et al., 2018), so the packaging materials might be the
main source of MPs in beverages. For condiments, PET accounted for
83% of the total polymer types in Spanish salts (Iniguez et al., 2017),
but was rarely found in Indian and Turkish salts, for which PE
Small MPs with sizes < 100 μm were mainly found in bottled water or
mineral water (Table S3). For example, over 95% MPs were
6.5–100 μm in bottled water (Mason et al., 2018), which may be related
to the clean water source and the simple but strict standards of produc-
tion processing. However, MPs were mainly <1000 μm in other food
samples, such as MPs in over 80% beverages, meat and seafood, and in
half of condiments and vegetables. For instance, the size of MPs was
0.02–1000 μm in the GITs and gills of fish from the South China Sea
(Koongolla et al., 2020), and was <1000 μm in ~70% of the Chinese
aquatic biota (Z. Fu et al., 2020). Specially, larger plastics were also
found in food, such as chicken gizzards in Mexico (84% MPs > 5000 μm)
(Huerta Lwanga et al., 2017), nori in China (57.8% MPs > 1000 μm) (Q. Li
et al., 2020) and salts in Turkey (74.6% MPs > 1000 μm) (Gundogdu,
2018), respectively.
The reported size distribution of MPs in food was affected by the
different methods used for observing and measuring (Filella, 2015).
When abundance of MPs was counted, width and length of the
particles were not indicated, and the pore size of filter screen during
sampling and filter membranes were not considered either. For
example, trawls pore sizes were between 100 μm and 500 μm in
studies of MPs in aquatic environments (Mai et al., 2018). Also,
membranes with different pore sizes were used for MPs in beverages
(Kosuth et al., 2018; Lachenmeier et al., 2015). Obviously, MPs
with particle size smaller than mesh/pore size are easy to pass
through filter screen or membranes, so the MPs abundance will be
underestimated.

6
C.-L. Bai, L.-Y. Liu, Y.-B. Hu et al.
5. Potential toxicities upon exposure to microplastics for biota
The occurrence of MPs in food indicates that MPs may enter biota,
including humans, through the food chains. MPs can pass through the
digestive tracts of biota, which has been demonstrated by the occur-
rence of MPs in the feces of birds, cats, dogs and even humans (Gil-
Delgado et al., 2017; Provencher et al., 2018; Schwabl et al., 2019;
Zhang et al., 2019), while, MPs may not be completely excreted from
biota. At present, the transfer of MPs from food into the human body,
and the potential effects on human health upon exposed to MPs have
not been fully investigated. Although there are several researches on
human cells, most toxicity studies of MPs are focused on model animals
(zebrafish, Daphnia, mice, etc.), or are analogies which regard MPs as
particles similar to those in the atmosphere (Vethaak and Legler,
2021; Wright and Kelly, 2017).
5.1. Adverse effects of microplastics particles to biota
Plastics are generally regarded as inert synthetic polymers, but they
also have somewhat toxic to various biota or human cells.
Jin et al. (2018) explored the effects of PS MPs (0.5 and 50 μm) on the
intestinal tracts of adult zebrafish. Their results indicated that the two
sizes of MPs can induce intestinal microflora imbalance and inflamma-
tion in zebrafish. Significant changes of the intestinal microorganisms,
and higher mRNA and protein levels of IL1a, IL1b and IFN were observed
in the intestinal tracts of zebrafish after the PS MPs exposure (Jin et al.,
2018). Similar results were also reported for juvenile Eriocheir sinensis
(Liu et al., 2019). These studies indicate that MPs < 1.5 μm can penetrate
the gastrointestinal barrier, reach organs and induce the intestinal dys-
function and inflammation, thus may cause further harm to other or-
gans in aquatic organisms (Alexander et al., 2016; V. Stock et al.,
2019). Moreover, Wright and Kelly (2017) found that PS MPs could be
absorbed in the small intestine of mammals and interfere with immu-
nity. The effects of exposure to PS MPs in mice were evaluated by both
L. Lu et al. (2018) and V. Stock et al. (2019), but the results were differ-
ent. L. Lu et al. (2018) found that PS exposure not only caused metabo-
lism disorder of liver lipid and reduced the weight of the body, liver and
lipids in mice, but also induced an imbalance of the intestinal microflora
and reduced secretion of the intestinal mucosa, similar to MPs in
zebrafish studies mentioned above. In contrast, V. Stock et al. (2019)
reported that no acute health effects, such as histological pathology or
inflammation, were observed in mice after oral administration of PS
MPs. Therefore, the adverse effects of PS MPs on mammals are still
inconclusive.
Several searchers have investigated the cytotoxicity of MPs using
human cells. Schirinzi et al. (2017) cultured brain cells and epithelial
cells exposed to 10 ng/mL to 10 μg/mL MPs (PE: 3–16 μm and PS:
10 μm) for 24–48 h, and the results showed that oxidative stress was in-
duced in brain cells by PE, and in both cells by PS or PE. In the study of
Hwang et al. (2020), human-derived HDFs, PBMCs and HMC-1 cells
were cultured with PS at different concentration levels. No significant
toxicity to the HDFs and PBMCs was found when PS concentration
was 500 μg/mL, but the survival rate of HDFs decreased significantly
(by 40%) once the level of PS increased to 1000 μg/mL. Besides, no aller-
gic reaction or histamine-mediated inflammation was found in HMC-1
cells exposed to PS (Hwang et al., 2020). However, in the hemolysis
test by directly contacted with particles, the hemolytic effect in blood
was negatively related to the sizes of PS particles. Moreover, when
the PS particle size was <3 μm (500 μg/mL), local inflammation of
tissues and organs may be caused (Hwang et al., 2020). Meanwhile,
Hwang et al. (2019) reported that PP MPs with small sizes
(<20 μm) at high concentration can promote human immune cells
to produce cytokines, then may affect cell health and induce acute in-
flammation. Those cytotoxicity tests of MPs with human cells indi-
cate that small enough MPs might have adverse effects on human
health.
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Science of the Total Environment 806 (2022) 150263
PVC MPs was found in the blood of animals (dogs, pigs, goats, rats,
guinea pigs and chickens) exposed to PVC by oral administration
(Volkheimer, 1975). Similar to fine particles in the atmosphere
(e.g., PM2.5), small MPs have close relationships with cardiovascular
disease, respiratory disease or lung cancer in humans (Vethaak and
Legler, 2021). In case of direct contact with lung or intestinal epithelial
cells, MPs may induce physical, chemical, and microbial toxicity
(Vethaak and Legler, 2021). In addition, it was reported that people
who worked in environments polluted with PES and PA fibers over
long terms would suffer from cough, dyspnea, wheezing and increasing
sputum production (Kremer et al., 1994). Lewis and Heaton (1999)
found that exposed to PTFE MPs could alter intestinal function in
humans, as both orocecal transit time and whole-gut time were reduced
in volunteers (Lewis and Heaton, 1999). Besides, inhaled cellulosic and
plastic fibers were observed in the tissues of both nonneoplastic lung
and malignant lung from the lung cancer patients (Pauly et al., 1998).
Therefore, MPs, especially those with small sizes, may have an influ-
ence on human health. Several studies have demonstrated MPs expo-
sure may have relationships with oxidative stress, inflammation,
intestinal dysfunction, and other diseases (abnormal lung function
and chronic respiratory disease) in biota or humans. However, for
most of the above experiments, cells or animals were exposed to high
concentration levels of MPs which were much higher than those in
the real environment, so whether the MPs cause great adverse effects
on human health is still far from proven.
5.2. Toxicity of adsorbed substances on microplastics to biota
As known, MPs are hydrophobic organic substances that can adsorb
organic pollutants, such as DDTs, PCBs, PAHs, TCS, etc. (Lo et al., 2019;
Ma et al., 2019; Rios Mendoza and Jones, 2015). As early as 2001,
Mato et al. (2001) had already detected PCBs and DDE on plastic resin
particles and PP (100–500 μm). After that, PAHs and PCBs were found
on the PE and PP MPs captured from the North Pacific Center in 2014
(Rios Mendoza and Jones, 2015). An adsorption test indicated that the
adsorption capacity and rate of MPs to PAHs increased with the de-
crease of particle size, as smaller MPs have larger specific surface areas
(Sharma et al., 2020). Similarly, Zhang et al. (2018) found that PP MPs
can adsorb three kinds of synthetic musks, and a negative correlation
was observed between the adsorption capacity and particle size of
MPs. Besides, the adsorption capacity of MPs was also influenced by
the MPs type, environmental temperature, and pH (Sorensen et al.,
2020).
The co-exposure of MPs and adsorbed contaminants may influence
their toxicities to biota. Firstly, the bioavailability of pollutants may be
affected by the adsorption behavior of MPs. For example, when co-
exposure with MPs, the bioavailability of phenanthrene decreased in
G. roeseli (Bartonitz et al., 2020), for PAHs in marine copepods
(Sorensen et al., 2020) and for PCBs in goldfish Grigorakis and
Drouillard (2018). In addition, Coffin et al. (2020) reported that no sig-
nificant differences in vision, swimming behaviors and CYP1A activity
were found for white seabass which exposed to benzo(a)pyrene-
adsorbed MPs in a short-term (5 days) (Coffin et al., 2020). However,
considering the desorption behavior of organic pollutants on MPs, co-
exposure may also increase the concentrations of organic pollutants
in biota in the real environment. Secondly, the combined toxicity
of MPs and organic pollutants might be higher than those of individuals.
It was reported that when co-exposed to PE MPs (0.5 mg/L,
100–400 μm) and TBBPA, the antioxidative stress in zebrafish was intro-
duced, which was significantly different from that observed for MPs or
TBBPA used alone (Yu et al., 2020). Thirdly, the combined toxicity of
MPs and organic pollutants to cells or biota was affected by the abun-
dance, size and type of MPs, and the concentration of organic pollutants.
Q. Wang et al. (2020) have compared the toxicities of PS MPs of different
sizes (from nanoscale to microscale) with and without adsorption of
BPA using human Caco-2 cells. Their results indicated MPs exposure
C.-L. Bai, L.-Y. Liu, Y.-B. Hu et al.
increased cellular oxidative stress and mitochondrial depolarization,
and smaller particle sizes or adsorption of BPA would enhance the cyto-
toxicity of MPs (Q. Wang et al., 2020). Besides, Li et al. investigated the
combined effect of DBP and PS MPs on the microalgae Chlorella
pyrenoidosa, and reported the bioavailability of DBP was reduced in
those organisms co-exposed at high concentration of MPs (20 mg/L),
which was not observed at low concentration (1 mg/L) (Z. Li et al.,
2020). In another study, the microalgae C. pyrenoidosa were exposed
to MPs (PE, PA, and PS) and nonylphenol (Yang et al., 2020). Their com-
bined toxicity was antagonistic, and the longer exposure time and
smaller particle sizes of MPs would enhance the effect on the growth
of microalgae (Yang et al., 2020).
Plastics and MPs can also adsorb nearby metals. Holmes et al. (2012)
and Rochman et al. (2014) investigated the adsorption capacity of plas-
tic to metals in marine environment. Trace metals (Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd
and Pb) were found on the PE plastic pellets collected from beaches of
south west England, which demonstrated that MPs might be an impor-
tant medium for the transportation of metals in marine environment
(Holmes et al., 2012). Rochman et al. measured the accumulation of
nine metals (Al, Fe, Cd, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Zn and Pb) on five types of plastics
(PET, HDPE, PVC, LDPE and PP) in a 12 month field study in San Diego
Bay, CA, the U.S. (Rochman et al., 2014). They reported that metal con-
centrations increased on all MPs during the research year, and the
lower levels were found on the HDPE than other MPs types. Long time
exposure would help MPs accumulate greater concentrations of metals
in the sea (Rochman et al., 2014). Besides, Brennecke et al. (2016)
discussed the adsorption of Cu and Zn on aging PVC and primary PS,
and they found that due to the greater elongation and polarity of PVC,
more Cu and Zn were adsorbed by PVC than PS. In addition, in an
in vitro human digestion model (mouth, gastric, small intestine, and
large intestine), PLA and PS MPs respectively adsorbed the lowest and
the highest amount of Cr among the five types of MPs (PE, PP, PVC, PS
and PLA) (Liao and Yang, 2020). Overall, these results indicate that the
adsorption time, aging degree, and polymer types of MPs all affect the
adsorption of metals. Metals can be adsorbed on MPs not only in the
marine environment but also in human digestive models, and the accu-
mulated metals on MPs may be ingested by aquatic organisms or birds
and then affect biota through the food chain, including humans.
The combined toxicities of MPs and metals for aquatic biota were
evaluated in several studies recently. Exposed to PS (50 or 500 μg/L)
and Cd (50 μg/L) solutions for 30 days, oxidative stress and stimulation
of innate immunity were found in Discus fish (Wen et al., 2018). In an-
other zebrafish study, the inflammatory response and oxidative stress
were also observed upon co-exposed to PS beads (5 μm) and Cd solution
(20 or 200 μg/L) for 21 days (K. Lu et al., 2018). Additionally, after ex-
posed to MPs (0.26 or 0.69 mg/L) and mercury (0.010 or 0.016 mg/L)
for 96 h, a significant interaction was observed between the MPs and
mercury metal in European seabass (Barboza et al., 2018). Microplastics
exposure could inhibit the enzyme activity in seabass, and its co-
exposure with mercury might inhibit brain AChE activity, change
energy-related enzyme activity, and induce oxidative stress damage
and neurotoxicity (Barboza et al., 2018). In addition to fish species, stud-
ies have reported the combined toxicity of MPs and metals in Daphnia
recently (Z. Wang et al., 2020a; Yuan et al., 2020). An antagonistic effect
was observed in Daphnia exposed to PS MPs (10 or 50 μm) and metal
ions, which was attributed to the decreased bioavailability of metal in
Daphnia caused by MPs adsorption (Yuan et al., 2020). However, differ-
ent results were found in Moina monogolica when exposed to Cd
adsorbed PE MPs for 21 days (Z. Wang et al., 2020a). The GTIs were
blocked by MPs, and reproductive toxicity and physiological changes
were also induced in Moina monogolica. Due to the acidic environment
in the GITs, the adsorbed Cd on MPs was resolved and then eventually
increased the adverse effects. Moreover, offspring of Moina monogolica
exposed to MPs-Cd had lower nutritional levels, which may cause mal-
nutrition (Z. Wang et al., 2020a). These studies of aquatic biota suggest
that the combined toxicity of MPs and metals is diverse and
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Science of the Total Environment 806 (2022) 150263
inconsistent, and is related to the types of MPs, experimental biota
and the metal forms.
5.3. Toxicity of leaching additives from microplastics to biota
Plasticizers, flame retardants, antioxidants, metal additives, etc. are
used in the production processing of plastics. Some of those additives
have already been demonstrated to have various toxicities, so the mi-
gration of them from MPs may also induce adverse effects on environ-
ment and biota.
According to a study by Suhrhoff and Scholz-Bottcher (2016), addi-
tives such as BPA and phthalates were leaching from PE, PET, PS and
PVC, and the process was affected by UV, salinity and water flow. It
was estimated 35–917 tons of additives might leach from plastics into
oceans every year (Suhrhoff and Scholz-Bottcher, 2016). Chen et al.
also reported BPA, BPS, octylphenol and nonylphenol were leaching
from MPs under solar irradiation (Chen et al., 2019). Researchers have
investigated the potential toxicity of leachable additives (DiNP) from
flexible PVC MPs to Daphnia, by using rigid PVC MPs and glass beads
as controls. They measured 2.67 μg/L of DiNP was leached out from
the flexible PVC into the surrounding. After exposure to flexible PVC
for 31 days, an increased body length and a decreased number of off-
spring were observed for Daphnia, which did not occurred in controls
(Schrank et al., 2019). Another study indicated little or none bioaccu-
mulation of HBCD (up to 0.27 ± 0.10% of ingested amount) was ob-
served in mealworms fed with MPs containing HBCD or in shrimps fed
with above mealworms, and the differences in shrimps survival were
also not related to the HBCD exposure (Brandon et al., 2020). Therefore,
there is no consensus about the leachable additives from MPs to in-
crease the adverse effects on biota.
Moreover, heavy metals are also leachable from MPs. Cr and Pb
were leached from aged PVC MPs under acidic conditions or high
concentrations of NaCl solution. When the leachate concentration
of Cr was >10 μg/L, it inhibited the growth and photosynthesis of
algal cells (Luo et al., 2020). Boyle et al. (2020) reported that
2.52% of Pb (compared with acid-wash amount) leached from PVC
MPs in 24 h in freshwater. Exposed to those PVC MPs for 24 h, in-
creased expression of metallothionein 2 was observed in zebrafish,
which was indirectly associated with desorption of Pb from the
PVC MPs (Boyle et al., 2020). The two studies indicate that heavy
metal additives leached from MPs may also introduce toxicity to
aquatic organisms.
5.4. Microorganisms on the surface of microplastics
The surface of MPs could be colonized by a variety of microorgan-
isms (bacteria, fungi, etc.) which become enriched and then form a bio-
film (De Tender et al., 2017; Naik et al., 2019).
Tu et al. have investigated the influence of exposure time and depth
on biofilm formation on the MPs in marine environment (Tu et al.,
2020). Square PE MPs (4 ± 1 mm) were cultured at different depths
in costal seawater for 30, 75 and 135 days. The colors of the PE surface
were changed covered with biofilms. The amount of biofilms was
positively correlated with exposure time, but negatively correlated
with seawater depth. The predominated microbiomes of biofilms
were spherical, rod-shaped, disc-shaped and filamentous, such as
Alphaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria and Bacteroidia. A similar
study was conducted by Feng et al. (2020), in which 9 types of MPs
(PP, PC, ABS, PA, LDPE, PS, PET, EPS, and PVC) with a size of 3–5 mm
were placed in the coral areas to investigate the biofilms and multiple
microorganisms on the surfaces of MPs. Interestingly, the composition
and abundance of the microorganisms on the surfaces of MPs were dif-
ferent from those in the surrounding environment Feng et al. (2020).
Other studies also found less abundance of microorganisms on the sur-
faces of MPs than surrounding mediums (De Tender et al., 2017; De
Tender et al., 2015; Miao et al., 2019; J. Wang et al., 2020).
C.-L. Bai, L.-Y. Liu, Y.-B. Hu et al.
Furthermore, animal or human pathogens were found on the sur-
faces of MPs (Wu et al., 2019), such as Vibrio spp. and Pseudomonas
spp., which are pathogenic to corals, fish, and even humans (Jiang
et al., 2018; Kirstein et al., 2016). Data on the combined toxicity of
MPs and microorganisms to biota are lacking. A study reported that
fish may become diseased when ingested MPs colonized by Aeromonas
salmonicida (Virsek et al., 2017), and the consumption of diseased fish
would pose a risk to human health. Studies have shown that MPs may
play an important role, acting as potential vectors, in enriching
multidrug-resistant E. coli and antibiotic-resistant bacteria (Song et al.,
2020; Y. Zhang et al., 2020). In addition, researchers reported that co-
contamination of metal and antibiotics on the surface of MPs could pro-
mote the existence of multiple drug-resistant human pathogens in the
environment and increase the incidence of these pathogens (Imran
et al., 2019). Moreover, Wright and Kelly (2017) concluded that MPs
can be colonized by microorganisms in the intestines and lungs, and
may change the original microorganism composition and trigger an im-
mune response in human body. MPs and the metabolites of microorgan-
ism on MPs may stimulate inflammation and oxidative stress in the
lungs or GITs of biota (Wright and Kelly, 2017).
5.5. Human exposure to microplastics through food
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations (FAO, 2017) and the World Health Organization (WHO,
2020), the annual supply or maximum intake of six kinds of food we
discussed are shown in Table 1. Based on the average abundance of
MPs in food, the estimated “maximum” annual intake of MPs is
1.42 × 105–1.54 × 105 particles/capita for general population from
these foods. The consumption of bottled water, milk, sugar and seafood
contribute the most annual MPs intakes, which are 7.56 × 104,
2.05 × 103, 1.87 × 104 and 3.69 × 104 particles/capita, respectively
(Table 1). Specially, we used average abundance of MPs in bottled
water (~100 particles/L) for the assessment, which is much lower than
the mean values reported for drink water in China (930 particles/L)
and Czechoslovakia (628 particles/L) (Mintenig et al., 2019;
Pivokonsky et al., 2018; Z. Wang et al., 2020b).
The “maximum” annual intake of MPs in our calculation is slight
higher than the values reported by Cox et al. (2019) and Senathirajah
et al. (2021), which were 52,000 and 102,527 particles/capita/year, re-
spectively. Another study reported from salts and drinking water, the
annual ingestion of MPs was 77,700 particles/capita, much lower than
the amount of MPs inhaled from the air (3.0 × 107 particles/capita/
year) (Q. Zhang et al., 2020). The authors indicated that MPs from air
may be much greater than that from food.
At present, human exposure amount of MPs was usually reported as
particle number, not on the mass. The reported MPs mass in food (shell-
fish, salts, beer, and drinking water) by Senathirajah et al. (2021)
(2.8 × 10−3 g/MP) was used to calculate the annual total mass intake
Table 1
The maximum annual intake of MPs from reviewed food for general population.
Food Food supply (kg/capita/year)
Beverages Beer 25.14
Bottled/mineral water 730a
Milk 87.99
Wine 3.12
Others 6.61b
Condiments Sugar 27.79
Salts 1.825a
Honey – 0.23
Poultry meat – 15.18
Seafood – 20.39
Total – –
Food supply data from FAO (2017).
a
Data from WHO (2020), bottled/mineral water supply data comes from WHO's drinking water intake.
b
The annual supply of alcoholic/fermented beverages.
Science of the Total Environment 806 (2022) 150263
of MPs for general population in the present review (Table 1). Our calcu-
lation indicates people may ingest about 398–431 g of MPs in one year,
which is consistent with the values reported by Senathirajah et al.
(2021) (33.2–540.8 g/capita/year, mean: 287 g/capita/year).
According to the plastic commodity bags used in China (China SAo,
2010), the specification parameters of a larger plastic bag is 0.04, 250
and 400 mm in thickness, width and length, respectively. The mass of
each plastic bag can be calculated by the following equations:
V plastic bag ¼ A  B  C  2 ð1Þ
M plastic bag ¼ ρ  V plastic bag ð2Þ
where, Vplastic bag is the volume of a plastic bag (cm3); A, B and C are the
length, width and thickness of the plastic bag (cm), respectively;
Mplastic bag is the mass of a plastic bag (g); ρ is the density of plastic
(g/cm3). For the ρ value, 0.98 g/cm3 was used, which is the density of
PE reported by F. Stock et al. (2019).
Therefore, the weight of a larger plastic bag was estimated as 7.84 g/
individual. If people may eat 398–431 g of MPs annually, it is equivalent
to approximately 50 plastic bags (size: 0.04 mm × 250 mm × 400 mm,
density: 0.98 g/cm3) (Table 1). Notably, our estimation assumed people
eat rice, noodles, soy sauce and various packaged meats every day, and
the eating frequency of each food was not considered.
6. Conclusions and perspectives
In the present review, we summarized the analytical methods re-
searchers commonly used, and the occurrence and the characteristics
of MPs for six kinds of food, as well as potential toxic effects on cells
and biota exposed to MPs. The results showed that >75% of researchers
used digestion solvents, and the most common identification methods
were FT-IR and Raman spectroscopy for MPs analysis in food samples.
Microplastics have been found in beverages, condiments, honey, meat,
seafood and vegetables, but the abundance was in a wide range. More-
over, many studies have reported MPs in the GITs, stomach and gills of
seafood products, which people usually do not consume. Thus, these
data may not provide strong evidence of MPs in food, and are not suit-
able for human ingestion estimation. In addition, current studies have
shown that MPs, their adsorbents or additives, and microorganisms on
the surface all have certain toxicity on human cells, or the GITs or livers
of organisms, where they have relationships with oxidative stress, in-
flammation, neurotoxicity and reproductive toxicity. Few studies have
investigated the combined toxicity of MPs and other pollutants, espe-
cially in real environments. Therefore, we suggest that a standard
method should be developed for the analysis of MPs in each kind of
food to facilitate the comparison among different regions. Although no
direct evidence indicates that exposed to MPs could induce adverse ef-
fect on human health, it is not a small number for a person to eat 50
MPs abundance (particles/kg, particles/L) Total dietary intake of MPs (capita/year/particles)
35.8 9.01 × 102
1.04 × 102 7.56 × 104
23.2 2.05 × 103
2.56 × 103–5.86 × 103 8.00 × 103–1.83 × 104
0–7 0–46.3
6.74 × 102 1.87 × 104
2–6.81 × 102 3.65–1.24 × 103
1.09 × 102 25.0
4.0–18.7 60.7–2.84 × 102
1.81 × 103 3.69 × 104
– 1.42 × 105–1.54 × 105
9
C.-L. Bai, L.-Y. Liu, Y.-B. Hu et al.
plastic bags in one year. Considering the toxicity of MPs or the adsor-
bents/additives to human cells and biota, it is important to investigate
the residual, excretion, and bioavailability of MPs or the adsorbents/ad-
ditives in biota and humans in further studies.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ-
ence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
The present study was financially supported by the National Natural
Science Foundation of Distinguished Young Scholar of China (No.
21822604), and Guangdong Innovative and Entrepreneurial Research
Team Program, China (No. 2016ZT06N258).
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150263.
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