microplastics in human diet: a comprehensive review of detection approaches and exposure pathways

Microplastics (mps), defined as synthetic polymer particles smaller than 5 mm, have become a growing concern due to their widespread presence in the human diet. these particles have been detected in sea-food, salt, sugar, honey, processed foods and beverages, raising serious health concerns due to their potential for bioaccumulation and their ability to leach harmful chemicals such as plasticizers, heavy metals, and persistent organic pollutants. this review provides an overview of the major dietary sources of mps, current trends in sample preparation techniques, including filtration, enzymatic digestion, and chemical oxi-dation, as well as detection methods such as ftir, raman spectroscopy, and py-gc-ms. it offers comparative insights into reported mp concen-trations across different food matrices and highlights challenges related to variability in analytical procedures and the lack of standardized de-tection protocols. the review also discusses existing regulatory gaps and proposes future directions for method harmonization, improved monitoring, and public health protection to address the growing threat of microplastic exposure through diet. however, nanoplastics remain largely undetectable in food matrices, and toxicological evidence in humans is still scarce. these critical gaps hinder accurate risk assess-ment and highlight the urgent need for standardized detection methods and robust exposure frameworks.