Chemical Characterization and Quantification of Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles (TiO2-NPs) in Seafood by Single-Particle ICP-MS: Assessment of Dietary Exposure

Abstract

The significant increase in the production and variety of nanoparticles (NPs) has led to their release into the environment, especially into the marine environment. Titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2-NPs) are used in different industrial sectors, from the food industry to several consumer and household products. Since the aquatic environment is highly sensitive to contamination by TiO2-NPs, this work aimed to give a preliminary assessment of the contamination of packaged seafood, where the food additive TiO2 (E171) is not to be intentionally added. This allowed providing a chemical characterization and quantification of TiO2-NPs in processed canned fish products belonging to different trophic positions of the pelagic compartment and in canned clam. The new emerging technique called single-particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (spICP-MS) was applied, which allows the determination of nanoparticle number-based concentration, as well as the dissolved titanium. This study highlights how processed food, where the pigment E171 was not intentionally added, contains TiO2 in its nanoparticle form, as well as dissolved titanium. Processed clam represented the seafood with the highest content of TiO2-NPs. In pelagic fish species, we found progressively higher levels and smaller sizes of TiO2-NPs from smaller to larger fish. Our results highlight the importance of planning the characterization and quantification of TiO2-NPs in food both processed and not, as well as where the pigment E171 is intentionally added and not, as it is not the only source of TiO2-NPs. This result represents a solid step toward being able to estimate the real level of dietary exposure to TiO2-NPs for the general population and the related health risks.

Anatase and Rutile TiO2 Nanoparticles Lead Effective Bone Damage in Young Rat Model via the IGF-1 Signaling Pathway

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Atomic spectrometry update: review of advances in the analysis of clinical and biological materials, foods and beverages

“…These workers also determined TiO 2 NPs in the same samples. 136 Particle sizes and Ti concentrations were signicantly greater in anchovy and clam, compared to tuna and mackerel, with the largest number of NPs found in clam. These results produced evidence of exposure to TiO 2 NPs also in foods where they had not been intentionally added.…”

“…8.2.7 Fish and seafood. Grasso et al 135,136 published 2 papers investigating TiO 2 and Ag nanoparticles in seafood. Multiple samples of canned tuna, mackerel, anchovies and clams were obtained from the local market and digested under alkaline conditions using TMAH, to preserve the integrity of the particles.…”

The potential of a multi-method platform centred on ICP-MS to provide new insights into the size-resolved quantification of TiO2 particles in food

“…In order to differentiate particle signals from the background signal, the size limit of detection (LODsize) was determined following the 3s criterion approach as described in the literature. [25][26][27][42][43][44][45] The LODsize corresponds to the mean background intensity registered in the blanks (ultrapure water) plus 3 times the standard deviation of this signal. In this study, under the conditions specied in Table 1, signals with an intensity of around 2 counts were registered.…”