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Table 1 Occurrence and characteristics of microplastics in water, beverages, and alcoholic drinks

From: Microplastics in food: scoping review on health effects, occurrence, and human exposure

Type of product

Type of polymer

N/Np

Size range (μm)

Analytical method

Microplastic content range (particles/L)a

Sample origin

Reference

Ground and drinking water

PE, PVC, PA, polyester, epoxy resin

24/10

50-150

FTIR microscope

0-7b

Germany

(Mintenig et al. 2019)

Water from three treatment plants

PET, PE, PP, PS, PVC, polyacrylamide, polybutylacrylate

3/3

1-100

SEM + FTIR+ Raman spectroscopy

338 ± 76-628 ± 28 (treated water)

Czech Republic

(Pivokonsky et al. 2018)

Tap water

nr

110/86

50-4830

Stereo microscope

0-8.605

Hong Kong

(Lam et al. 2020)

Tap water

Anthropogenic debrisc

159/126

100-5000

Stereo microscope

0-61

Global

(Kosuth et al. 2018)

Bottled water (plastic and glass), beverages, tap water

PE, PP, PS, PET, PA, polymethyl methacrylate

15/15

nr

TED-GC/MS

< 0.01 μg/L − 2 μg/L (mass content)

 

(Braun et al. 2021)

Bottled mineral water (PET bottles)

–

10/10

1.28-4.2

SEM-EDX

3.16 × 107-1.1 × 108

Italy

(Zuccarello et al. 2019)

Bottled mineral water

PP, PE, PET, PS, PA, polyester

38/38

5-100

Micro-Raman spectroscopy

2-44 (single use)

28-241 (returnable)

5-20 (cartons)

4-156 (glass)

Germany

(Schymanski et al. 2018)

Bottled mineral water

PET, PE, PP styrene-butadiene

32/32

1- > 10

Micro-Raman spectroscopy

4889 ± 5432 (reusable)

2649 ± 2857 (single use)

3074 ± 2531 (glass)

Germany

(Oßmann et al. 2018)

Bottled water

PP, PE, PA

259/242

6.5-5000

Optical microscope+FTIR

0-10,000

Global

(Mason et al. 2018)

Beer

Anthropogenic debrisc

12/12

100-5000

Stereo microscope

0d-14.3

Laurentian Great Lakes

(Kosuth et al. 2018)

Beer

nr

24/24

nr

Stereo microscope

2-79 (fibres)

12-109 (fragments)

2-66 (granules)

Germany

(Liebezeit and Liebezeit 2014)

Beer and soft drinks

PP, PE, polyacrylamide

29/29

3,5–2224.25

Inverted microscope+FTIR

8-117

Ecuador

(Diaz-Basantes et al. 2020)

Soft and energy drinks, beer, cold tea

PET, PA, polyester, acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene

57/48

100-3000

Epifluorescence microscope+SEM-EDX

0-7 (soft and energy drinks)

0-28 (beer)

1-6 (cold tea)

Mexico

(Shruti et al. 2020)

White vine

PE

26/24

7–475

Micro-Raman spectroscopy

2563-5857

Italy

(Prata et al. 2020)

  1. N/Np Number of samples/positive samples, nr Not reported
  2. aPresented as Range, Mean ± SD or Range of Mean ± SD
  3. bPer cubic meter
  4. cNot stained by the Rose Bengal dye
  5. dThe three-trial average was less than the number found in the blank