17 Microplastics in Our Food and How They Got There

As mentioned before, microplastics are defined as plastic particles that are smaller than 5 mm each. Microplastics come from many things like single waste plastic as well plastic dumping from large corporations. In this day and age, microplastics are everywhere from the land, oceans, lakes, and in our food.

Due to microplastic being almost everywhere and the planet and continuing to grow, they have become a large concern for countries across the world. In January 2025, 25 countries united to combat plastic pollution through the Global Plastics Action Partnership. This program focuses on promoting recycling plastics and reducing emissions from the plastics sector while also growing the job force with environmentally friendly jobs. (25 Countries Unite in the Fight Against Plastic Pollution > Press releases | World Economic Forum)

We also see large evidence of microplastics being in our food. Many studies have been done on food products like seafood, salt and sugar, drinking water, as well as many other food items. Within these studies, almost all food groups showed significant evidence that microplastics are within our foods. These plastics can come from production, storage, and packaging. In the case of seafood, most of the microplastics come from the fish consuming the microplastics from their food. Like mentioned in the previous chapter, phytoplankton consume small foods and many times, they think the microplastics are food. These plastics move up through the food chain and into the food that we consume as humans. Microplastics are becoming more and more prevalent and are working their way up through the production and food chains. This presents a whole host of issues that we need to solve before they become detrimental to the planet and human health.

In this chapter, we will go in depth into how microplastics get into our soil and food and how that affects human and environmental health. We will also explore how we can mitigate this issue and what solutions are available to us. Also, we will review what initiative has already been taken against the microplastic issue and how effective they are or could be in a larger population.

Figure 3.1 – Brief overview of how microplastic get processed in the soil