Microplastics and Their Effect in Horticultural Crops: Food Safety and Plant Stress

Abstract

The presence of micro and nanoplastics in the food chain constitutes an emergent multifactorial food safety and physiological stress problem, which must be approached with a strategic perspective since it affects public health when consuming products that have this pollutant, such as fish and crustaceans, fruits, and vegetables. In this review, the authors present the results by scientists from different disciplines who are dedicated to discovering their chemical constitution and origin, the contents of these microparticles in edible plants, the contamination of water-irrigated soils, the mechanisms that concentrate microplastics in these soils, methods to determine them, contamination of freshwater sources of cities, and the negative effect of nano and microplastics on various food products and their detrimental impact on the environment. Recent findings of plant uptake mechanisms complement this, but more research is needed.

Macro-microscopic evidence of pest, diseases and coexistence of microplastics in Avicennia marina leaves from Mangunharjo Village, Tugu District, Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia

“…So far, the similar study has been conducted on nanoplastic. It is proven that the naturally occurring of transpiration pull in plants aids the translocation of nanoplastics within plants [33,36]. Besides, the existence of microplastic and nanoplastic is noted to give negative effect to the plant physiology and biochemical such as late germination, delay the root growth, triggered oxidative stress and induced cyto/genotoxicity on root system [36][37][38].…”

Microplastics in food commodities

“…Reports suggest that microplastics could accumulate in a plant's roots before being transported to aerial parts such as leaves, flowers and fruits (Li et al, 2020;Li et al, 2021). Deposition on plant food surfaces has also been reported (Tympa et al, 2021;Dong et al, 2021;Silva et al, 2021;Jia et al, 2022).…”

Applications of Starch Biopolymers for a Sustainable Modern Agriculture

“…Plastic films have revolutionized modern agricultural developments to convert barren lands to fertile lands (such as deserts). Hence, plastics carry paramount importance in all aspects of agricultural and horticultural processes [9,[46][47][48]. A wide range of plastics is used in agriculture that has been defined based on requirements of cultivation, agronomic practices, regional climate demands, and geographical conditions.…”