Microplastic contamination and risk assessment in salts from India And Sri Lanka

Abstract

Abstract The pervasive contamination of the environment with microplastics (MP) poses a potential threat to food safety because MPs enter and move up the food chain. However, the impact of MPs on humans is limited. In this study, we analysed MP contamination of the commonly available brands of crystal and iodized powder salts from India and Sri Lanka. The abundance of MPs in Indian salt is higher (17.16 ± 8.81 items/kg) than in Sri Lankan salt (7.9 ± 6.2 items/kg). In both countries, a higher abundance of MPs is found for crystal salt (27 ± 7.12 items/kg, India; and 19 ± 9.53 items/kg, Sri Lanka). Fiber-shaped, black and white MPs with < 1 mm size were found to be dominant in both counties' salts. ATR-FTIR analysis confirmed the polymer of MPs. PP and PE are found dominantly in both the Indian (56%, 24%) and Sri Lankan (42%, 28%) salt samples. Based on the hazard score of polymers, the chemical risk of salts was categorized as hazard levels Ⅱ (Sri Lanka) and Ⅳ (India). If a person consumes 5 g of salt a day (WHO), Indians will consume 0.085 MPs/day and 31.025 MPs/year, and Sri Lankans will intake 0.0395 MPs/day and 14.4175 MPs/year. The occurrence of MPs in the salts may be attributed to the use of contaminated water in salt production, the kind of production process employed, and packaging of the products.