Abstract Microplastic detection has been acknowledged as challenging so far, particularly regarding in-situ analysis. Although much effort on the use of rapid analytical methods to analyse and identify microplastics in the environment, less has been done on the identification and measurement of microplastics contained in the food matrix. The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of a rapid method based on attenuated total reflection mid infrared (ATR-MIR) spectroscopy combined with chemometric techniques to identify the level of contamination in homogenised chicken meat with microplastics polystyrene (PS, particle size 100 μm) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC, 3 μm, 100 μm and 2–4 mm). We have evaluated the contamination of chicken meat with various amount of microplastics using MIR spectroscopy. Despite the moderate detection sensitivity of the method, the ATR-MIR can be a rapid and reliable analytical tool to detect and quantify high levels (between 1 up to 10%) of addition/contamination of microplastics to chicken meat. This is the first study to explore the feasibility of measuring microplastics within the context of chicken meat. The method once optimised with improved sensitivity would in future greatly enhance the applicability of measuring microplastics in an organism or tissue sample without damaging its original form, or even the possibility of detection in living organisms.

中文翻译：

---

中红外光谱和化学计量学快速测定鸡肉中微塑料污染的可行性研究

摘要 迄今为止，微塑料检测已被公认为具有挑战性，特别是在原位分析方面。尽管在使用快速分析方法来分析和识别环境中的微塑料方面付出了很多努力，但在识别和测量食物基质中所含的微塑料方面却做得很少。本研究的目的是评估使用基于衰减全反射中红外 (ATR-MIR) 光谱的快速方法结合化学计量技术来确定均质鸡肉中含有微塑料聚苯乙烯（PS，粒径 100 μm）和聚氯乙烯（PVC，3 μm、100 μm 和 2–4 mm）。我们已经使用中红外光谱评估了鸡肉受到不同数量微塑料的污染。尽管该方法的检测灵敏度适中，但 ATR-MIR 可以成为一种快速可靠的分析工具，用于检测和量化鸡肉中添加/污染的微塑料的高水平（1% 至 10%）。这是第一项探索在鸡肉中测量微塑料的可行性的研究。该方法一旦以提高的灵敏度进行优化，将来将大大提高测量生物体或组织样本中微塑料的适用性，而不会破坏其原始形式，甚至可以在活生物体中进行检测。这是第一项探索在鸡肉中测量微塑料的可行性的研究。该方法一旦以提高的灵敏度进行优化，将来将大大提高测量生物体或组织样本中微塑料的适用性，而不会破坏其原始形式，甚至可以在活生物体中进行检测。这是第一项探索在鸡肉中测量微塑料的可行性的研究。该方法一旦以提高的灵敏度进行优化，将来将大大提高测量生物体或组织样本中微塑料的适用性，而不会破坏其原始形式，甚至可以在活生物体中进行检测。