According to the latest research, marine products have the greatest potential for microplastic (MPs) contamination. Therefore, their presence in terrestrial food has not managed to attract much attention—despite the fact that in the future they may represent a serious environmental risk. Research conducted in Europe and the US has indicated the presence of MPs in tap water, bottled water, table salt, honey, beer and snails for human consumption. The presence of MPs in food has not yet been evaluated in Latin America. This work focused on evaluating two widely consumed beverages: milk and soft drinks. Furthermore, honey and beer samples were analyzed and compared to findings in the literature. All products were sourced in Ecuador. In order to determine correlations with the intensity of anthropogenic activity, samples of both industrially processed and craft products were studied. For the analysis, an improvement of previous techniques used to determine MPs in honey was applied. This technique uses microfiltration followed by degradation of organic matter with hydrogen peroxide—and finally, continuous rinsing with deionized water. Size ranges were established between 0.8–200 mm. The number of microplastics found was between 10 and 100 MPs/L, with an average of around 40 MPs/L. The sizes of the particles found in the study are in the range of 13.45 and 6742.48 μm for the fibers, and between 2.48 and 247.54 μm for the fragments. From the composition analysis carried out with FTIR, we were able to confirm the presence of 12% of microplastic. The results generally showed a greater presence of MPs compared to those registered in Europe, probably due to processing methods rather than environmental pollution. Regarding composition, the main microplastics found were polyethylene, polypropylene and polyacrylamide.

中文翻译：

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厄瓜多尔蜂蜜、啤酒、牛奶和茶点中的微塑料成为新兴污染物

根据最新研究，海洋产品最有可能受到微塑料 (MPs) 污染。因此，它们在陆生食物中的存在并没有引起太多关注——尽管未来它们可能代表严重的环境风险。在欧洲和美国进行的研究表明，供人类食用的自来水、瓶装水、食盐、蜂蜜、啤酒和蜗牛中都含有 MP。尚未在拉丁美洲评估食品中 MPs 的存在。这项工作的重点是评估两种广泛消费的饮料：牛奶和软饮料。此外，还分析了蜂蜜和啤酒样品，并将其与文献中的发现进行了比较。所有产品均来自厄瓜多尔。为了确定与人为活动强度的相关性，研究了工业加工产品和工艺产品的样品。对于分析，应用了先前用于确定蜂蜜中 MPs 的技术的改进。该技术使用微滤，然后用过氧化氢降解有机物，最后用去离子水连续冲洗。尺寸范围确定在 0.8-200 毫米之间。发现的微塑料数量在 10 到 100 MPs/L 之间，平均约为 40 MPs/L。研究中发现的颗粒大小在纤维的 13.45 和 6742.48 微米之间，碎片在 2.48 和 247.54 微米之间。从使用 FTIR 进行的成分分析中，我们能够确认存在 12% 的微塑料。结果通常表明，与在欧洲注册的议员相比，议员人数更多，可能是由于加工方法而不是环境污染。关于成分，发现的主要微塑料是聚乙烯、聚丙烯和聚丙烯酰胺。