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Microplastics in Agriculture and Food Science: Methods for Identification and Remediation presents fundamental insights into the sources of microplastics and their impact on important agricultural, food, and environmental resources. Presenting insights into these highly related fields, this book is the first to enable cross- and multidisciplinary understanding and application.
Microplastics are tiny particles created during plastic production as well as those particles remaining when plastic degrades and breaks down. They are sometimes difficult to identify, and the methods for qualifying and classifying them are not always clear despite the importance of their recognition and remediation. With insights into analytical methods including the challenges, this book addresses microplastics from the farm to the food pyramid, highlighting the issues they raise and the options for removing them.
Written by a global team of experts, this volume contributes to further understanding and addressing of this increasing global challenge, and is an excellent resource for researchers in agricultural science, environmental science, and food science (particularly food chemistry and food packaging).
List of contents
Part I: The Contaminants of the 21st Century: An Introduction to Microplastics1. Plastics in the Agricultural Field
2. Plastics in the Food Sector
3. Principle Plastic Polymers in Agricultural and Food Sectors
4. From Plastics to Microplastics
Part II: Analytical Methodologies for Microplastics Determination: between Limitations and Innovations5. Sampling Methods for Microplastics Determination
6. Pre-treatment of Food and Agricultural Matrices for Microplastics Extraction
7. Analytical Methodologies for Qualification of Microplastics
8. Quantification of Microplastics: A Call for Method Harmonization
9. Polymer Solubilization: A Potential Solution for Microplastics Quantification
10. Quality Assurance and Quality Control: The Prevention of Airborne Contamination
Part III: Microplastics in agriculture11. Microplastics Contamination in Soil
12. Microplastics Contamination in Crops
13. Artificial Crop Irrigation and Microplastics
14. Microplastics and Agricultural Vehicle Tires
15. Fertilizers and Microplastics Contamination of Crops
16. Atmospheric Particulates and Microplastics
Part IV: Microplastics in farm animals17. Feed Production Process and Microplastics Contamination
18. Microplastics in Farm Animals: Health Effects
19. Microplastics: From Animal to Human
Part V: Microplastics in the food sector20. Food Processing and microplastics
21. Food Packaging and Potential Microplastics Release
22. Food Pyramid and Microplastics
Part VI: Human exposure to microplastics23. Are We Eating Microplastics?
24. Microplastics in Food Production and Agricultural Environments
Part VII: Contaminants associated with microplastics25. Microplastics and plasticizers
26. Microplastics and organic contaminants
27. Microplastics and inorganic contaminants
Part IIX: Fate of microplastics and toxicological studies28. Translocation of microplastics in human tissue
29. Microplastics and potential damage to human cells
30. 3-D models for studing microplastics effects on humans
Part IX: Additional Topics and Considerations31. Use of agricultural products as bio-indicators
32. Potential solutions in the agriculture and food sector
33. Regulatory Gaps in Microplastics Field in food and agriculture sectors
About the author
Prof. Avino studies the development of innovative analytical methodologies for development and application of analytical and sampling methods for the qualitative and quantitative determination of chemical compounds (e.g., contaminants, pollutants, nutrients) in food, agricultural, biological and anthropogenic matrices. These studies are aimed at evaluating inorganic and organic species present at trace and ultra-trace levels in food and environmental (smoke, air, water and soil) matrices, as well as the evaluation of the environmental and human health risks related to the exposure/ingestion of such compounds. In 1998 he received both the “Group Achievement NASA Award” and the “Next Generation Award” ( 22nd International Symposium on Chromatography). He has also received the “Environmental Sapio” Award for his research in the environmental field and in particular in the atmospheric particulate matter problems. Prof. Avino is author and co-author of scientific publications including original papers published in national and international journals and books.Cristina Di Fiore is a Research Fellow at the University of Molise in Environmental and Analytical Chemistry. She obtained her Ph.D. in Science, Technologies and Biotechnologies of Food, working in Environmental and Analytical Chemistry. Precisely, her Ph.D. was based on the extraction and chemical determination of microplastics in several food matrices. She is the author of 26 articles, mainly focused on microplastic’s analyses, as well as on the development of analytical protocols for determination of several environmental pollutants.Stefano Farris is Full Professor at the Department of Food, Environmental and Nutritional Sciences (DeFENS) – University of Milan. His research focuses on the design and development of new high-performance materials using mainly biomacromolecules, by means of different approaches such as soft chemistry and nanotechnology. His research firstly deals with fundamental aspects to provide new suitable practical solutions, especially for the food packaging sector. This is accomplished by strong and fruitful collaborations with several industrial partners.
