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Microplastics in the Food Chain

Currently, microplastics represent a widespread contamination found in almost every part of the environment. The plastic industry has generated waste since the 1950s, which unfortunately now counts in the millions. The largest share of plastic consumption is used to produce packaging materials, incl...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Cverenkárová, Klára, Valachovičová, Martina, Mackuľak, Tomáš, Žemlička, Lukáš, Bírošová, Lucia
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8704590/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34947879
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life11121349
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author Cverenkárová, Klára
Valachovičová, Martina
Mackuľak, Tomáš
Žemlička, Lukáš
Bírošová, Lucia
author_facet Cverenkárová, Klára
Valachovičová, Martina
Mackuľak, Tomáš
Žemlička, Lukáš
Bírošová, Lucia
author_sort Cverenkárová, Klára
collection PubMed
description Currently, microplastics represent a widespread contamination found in almost every part of the environment. The plastic industry has generated waste since the 1950s, which unfortunately now counts in the millions. The largest share of plastic consumption is used to produce packaging materials, including those applied in the food industry. The versatility of plastic materials is mainly due to their lightness, flexibility, strength, and persistence. Although plastic materials are widely used due to their beneficial properties, contamination of the environment with microplastics and nanoplastics is an emerging problem worldwide. This type of contamination is endangering animal life and thus also the food chain and public health. This review summarizes the knowledge about microplastics in the food chain. The effect of microplastics on the food chain has been particularly studied in marine organisms, and research deals less with other food commodities. Therefore, based on the studied literature, we can conclude that the issue is still not sufficiently examined, and should be paid more attention to maintain the health of the population.
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spelling pubmed-87045902021-12-25 Microplastics in the Food Chain Cverenkárová, Klára Valachovičová, Martina Mackuľak, Tomáš Žemlička, Lukáš Bírošová, Lucia Life (Basel) Review Currently, microplastics represent a widespread contamination found in almost every part of the environment. The plastic industry has generated waste since the 1950s, which unfortunately now counts in the millions. The largest share of plastic consumption is used to produce packaging materials, including those applied in the food industry. The versatility of plastic materials is mainly due to their lightness, flexibility, strength, and persistence. Although plastic materials are widely used due to their beneficial properties, contamination of the environment with microplastics and nanoplastics is an emerging problem worldwide. This type of contamination is endangering animal life and thus also the food chain and public health. This review summarizes the knowledge about microplastics in the food chain. The effect of microplastics on the food chain has been particularly studied in marine organisms, and research deals less with other food commodities. Therefore, based on the studied literature, we can conclude that the issue is still not sufficiently examined, and should be paid more attention to maintain the health of the population. MDPI 2021-12-06 /pmc/articles/PMC8704590/ /pubmed/34947879 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life11121349 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Cverenkárová, Klára
Valachovičová, Martina
Mackuľak, Tomáš
Žemlička, Lukáš
Bírošová, Lucia
Microplastics in the Food Chain
title Microplastics in the Food Chain
title_full Microplastics in the Food Chain
title_fullStr Microplastics in the Food Chain
title_full_unstemmed Microplastics in the Food Chain
title_short Microplastics in the Food Chain
title_sort microplastics in the food chain
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8704590/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34947879
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life11121349
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