Analysis of microplastics in commercial vegetable edible oils from Italy and Spain

Elena Battaglini; Pablo Miralles; Nadia Lotti; Michelina Soccio; Maurizio Fiorini; Clara Coscollà

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2024.138567

Analysis of microplastics in commercial vegetable edible oils from Italy and Spain

Food Chem. 2024 Jun 15:443:138567. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2024.138567. Epub 2024 Jan 26.

Authors

Elena Battaglini¹, Pablo Miralles², Nadia Lotti³, Michelina Soccio⁴, Maurizio Fiorini⁵, Clara Coscollà⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering, University of Bologna, Italy.
² Foundation for the Promotion of Health and Biomedical Research in the Valencian Region (FISABIO-Public Health), Valencia, Spain. Electronic address: pablo.miralles@fisabio.es.
³ Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering, University of Bologna, Italy; CIRI MAM, University of Bologna, Italy; CIRI AGRO, University of Bologna, Italy.
⁴ Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering, University of Bologna, Italy; CIRI AGRO, University of Bologna, Italy.
⁵ Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering, University of Bologna, Italy; CIRI MAM, University of Bologna, Italy.
⁶ Foundation for the Promotion of Health and Biomedical Research in the Valencian Region (FISABIO-Public Health), Valencia, Spain.

PMID: 38295567
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2024.138567

Abstract

In this work, assessment of microplastics (MPs) in commercial vegetable edible oils from Italy and Spain, including extra-virgin olive oil, olive oil, sunflower oil, and mixed seed oil, has been conducted for the first time. The method was based on sample dilution with ethanol:n-hexane (1:3, v/v), homogenization, vacuum filtration on macroporous silicon filters with 5 μm pore diameter to collect MPs, and automatic µ-FTIR spectroscopy for MPs detection and characterization. In the analysis of oil samples, a mean MPs abundance of 1140 ± 350 MPs/L was found. Observed MPs were characterized, being most of them fragments (81.2 %), with particle sizes < 100 µm (77.5 %), and mainly composed of polyethylene (50.3 %) and polypropylene (28.7 %), among others. Statistical analysis revealed that there were not significant differences (p-value > 0.05) in the abundance of MPs between oil samples or types.

Keywords: Foods; Microplastics; Plastic packaging; Vegetable oil; µ-FTIR.

MeSH terms

Italy
Microplastics
Olive Oil / chemistry
Plant Oils* / chemistry
Plastics
Spain
Vegetables*

Substances

Plant Oils
Microplastics
Plastics
Olive Oil