Discovery and solution for microplastics: New risk carriers in food

Qi Zhang; Xin Wang; Yang Chen; Guangchun Song; Hao Zhang; Kunlun Huang; Yunbo Luo; Nan Cheng

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2025.142784

Discovery and solution for microplastics: New risk carriers in food

Food Chem. 2025 Jan 5:471:142784. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2025.142784. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Qi Zhang¹, Xin Wang², Yang Chen¹, Guangchun Song³, Hao Zhang⁴, Kunlun Huang⁵, Yunbo Luo⁶, Nan Cheng⁷

Affiliations

¹ Beijing Laboratory for Food Quality and Safety, College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China.
² Beijing Laboratory for Food Quality and Safety, College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China. Electronic address: davidwx@cau.edu.cn.
³ Institute of Food Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Key Laboratory of Agro-products Quality and Safety Control in Storage and Transport Process, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Beijing 100193, China.
⁴ Beijing Laboratory for Food Quality and Safety, College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China. Electronic address: zhanghaocau@cau.edu.cn.
⁵ Beijing Laboratory for Food Quality and Safety, College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China; Key Laboratory of Safety Assessment of Genetically Modified Organism (Food Safety), Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing 100083, China.
⁶ Beijing Laboratory for Food Quality and Safety, College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China; Key Laboratory of Safety Assessment of Genetically Modified Organism (Food Safety), Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing 100083, China. Electronic address: lyb@cau.edu.cn.
⁷ Beijing Laboratory for Food Quality and Safety, College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China. Electronic address: goodluckchengnan@163.com.

PMID: 39788019
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2025.142784

Abstract

Microplastics (MPs), as a kind of plastic particles with an equal volume size of less than 5 mm, similar to PM2.5 in the air, are causing severe contamination issues in food. Along with the food chain accumulation, they have been confirmed to appear in daily foods and cause serious health risks to the organisms. However, there were no unifying national and local policies on separating, extracting, and detecting MPs in food, which is an essential and imperative early-warning strategy. This review carefully and comprehensively summarized the validated contaminated food, physical and chemical characteristics, extraction methods, traditional and rapid detection techniques, as well as degradation methods of MPs. We thoroughly analyzed the differences among these traditional strategies, and innovatively generalized the existing rapid detection techniques for MPs. Finally, the shortcomings of existing research were discussed, and the possibility of novel rapid and intelligent detection techniques for MPs in food was proposed.

Keywords: Degradation methods; Detection technology; Food safety; Microplastics; Physical and chemical characteristics.

Publication types

Review