Microplastics contamination in selected staple consumer food products

Abstract

The use of plastics in the manufacturing of food products is of concern as microplastics (MPs, 1 µm to 5 mm) find their way into food which poses risks to human health. This study is the first to report detection of MPs in selected staple food products in the Philippines, specifically sea salt, white and brown sugar, fish sauce, and rice. Raman microspectroscopy was used to identify the MPs and pigment additives. The mean MP concentration was 471 MPs kg⁻¹ with 71% identified as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) for salt, 20 MPs kg⁻¹ with 67% polyethylene terephthalate (PET) for white sugar, 67 MPs kg⁻¹ with 77% polypropylene (PP) for brown sugar, 3 MPs L⁻¹ for fish sauce, and 5 MPs kg⁻¹ with 100% PET for cooked rice. For sea salt, the highest MP contamination found was PVC that is likely from the processing of this product. This implies the need for careful use of PVC materials in their manufacture. For sugar, rice, and fish sauce, the likely contamination is from plastic packaging. The present findings provide estimation of human consumption of MPs from food items and insights on the use of plastic materials in the manufacturing processes.