Determination of plastic polyester oligomers in real samplesand their bioeffects

Plastics are ubiquitously, becoming part of our everyday life. Recently, the issue of human exposure tomicro- and nanoplastic particles and potentially resulting toxicological consequences has been broached,triggered by the discovery of microplastics in foodstuff and dietary exposure via contaminated food andbeverages. Within this EU-FORA fellowship project, a determination and quantification of plasticpolyester plastics oligomers in food samples was performed to assess exposure at these categories of'nanoplastics', evaluating them as potential contaminants or as indicators and marker compounds of theexposure to specific nanoplastics/microplastics from polyesters, such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET)and polybutylene terephthalate (PBT). UHPLC-TOF-MS/MS analysis has been set-up for 10 PET and PBToligomers and analysis has been performed in foods and drinks. Moreover, the project focused also onthe effects of these oligomers inin vitroandex vivoexperiments. These data would be combined withEFSA Comprehensive Food Consumption Database, for the exposure and risk assessment of these'Nanoplastics'