Toward harmonization and good practices for the study of microplastics in seafood?

Abstract

International audienceThe massive production of plastics since the 1950’s and the problem of waste mismanagement led to the irrefutable pollution of the open Ocean by plastics, including the tiniest particles called microplastics (MP) and nanoplastics. Since the early seventies, fish with MP in their gut have been described and for that time, the presence of these particles has also been recorded in shellfish, crustaceans and cephalopods. This rise the question on the quality of the product, food safety issues and risk assessment related to the presence of MP in such seafood. To answer these questions, it is important to isolate MP from seafood, using reproducible and reliable methods in order to compare the different studies and accurately estimate the occurrence and levels of MP in seafood. To do so and based on a selection of scientific articles published so far, a review of the current practices of the community was carried out. Multiple aspects were addressed, including MP contamination at the laboratory scale, sampling, extractions of MP, quantification and identification. This work allows pointing out the current limits of the analytical approaches and the needs for improving the methods in order to be able to carry out the most reliable and reproducible analyzes. A final part of this work was dedicated to the concept of “MIMS”, minimal information for the microplastics studies. This check-list, gather essential and desirable points to be addressed from manipulation planning to data processing in order to produce reliable data and facilitate to the intercomparability of the studies