Are microplastics a threat to food security?

Last month I published a review article in the Journal of Food Science and Technology, entitled: Microplastics: an emerging threat to food security and human health. In this short review, I addressed the current state of art regarding microplastics contamination in food (mostly seafood and shellfish). I made an understanding of how microplastics could threat two of the four pillars of food security. Microplastic uptake pathways in humans (Fig. 1) are discussed and possible health implications are reviewed. 

Fig. 1. A model showing microplastics route from emission to human ingestion

I concluded that there is still knowledge gaps to be investigated in order to fully understand and quantify microplastic contamination impacts over food security and human health. 

I wanted to share my review with anyone that needed it, you can always request it from my ResearchGate account. 

References

De-la-Torre, G. E. (2019). Microplastics: an emerging threat to food security and human health. Journal of Food Science and Technology. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13197-019-04138-1

Marine macroinvertebrates inhabiting marine debris

During a sampling campaign, we found many stranded marine debris along the coast. In many cases, these items were inhabited by many marine macroinvertebrates, among sessile species and other species that seemed to be entangled.

Fig. 1. Stranded red fishing net inhabited by marine macroinvertebrates

In this example (Figure 1), we found a quite large fishing net, having bivalves, gastropods, a crustacean and even an echinoderm.

Fig. 2. Ocypode occidentalis

Fig. 3. Semimytilus algosus

Fig. 4. Tetrapygus niger

These findings suggest a potential invasion of non-native species and invasive species to foreign marine ecosystems due to rafting.

Microplastics in the marine environment

I've been researching microplastic (MP) presence and abundance for about two years now. It is interesting to see how these particles smaller than 5 mm in diameter or length are ubiquitous in the marine environment. After doing some research, we found MPs in different molluscs, fish and even in marine otter scats from the coast of Peru. Determining the exact sources is quite hard, but it is most likely that the poor waste water treatments promote the dispersal of microfibers (which are, by the way, the most common MP morphological type I've found here and many studies agree with this).

Fig. 1. Blue microfibers found in the stomach of Cheilodactylus variegatus from the coast of Lima, Peru

The MPs in figure 1 are about larger than 100um. I'm looking forward to investigate MP bioaccumulation in Peruvian bivalves through the correlation between MP content and valve length and wet weight of each individual. It sound very interesting to me.