Thermal aging of microplastics during food processing: microplastic release and food safety implications
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Published on: July 27, 2022
Mindong Ma1, Meiyi Wang1, Shuai Zhang1
1School of Human Settlements and Civil Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, PR China.
Abstract:
Plastics used in food processing are frequently exposed to elevated temperature, oxygen, and chemical complex media during food processing, making thermal aging a significant yet underrecognized source of dietary microplastics and nanoplastics (MPs and NPs). Focusing on infant feeding, microwave heating, hot-liquid contact, and household cooking, this review shows that aging can drive chain scission, surface oxidation, changes in polymer structure, additive migration, and the release of MPs and NPs together with co-contaminants, while thermal aging enhances microplastics' biological reactivity, posing potential risks to human health. By integrating evidence from representative food-use scenarios, this review provides a framework for understanding how thermal aging influences contaminant release across food-processing systems and offers guidance for material selection, migration evaluation, and dietary exposure assessment under realistic processing conditions.
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