Assessing seafood contamination by microplastics through the development and application of nuclear techniques

Marine microplastic pollution poses significant threats to both marine environments and human health, as microplastics can enter the human food chain through seafood consumption. The CRP aims to evaluate seafood contamination by microplastics using nuclear techniques, with a focus on developing and validating protocols for analysing small microplastics in seafood matrices. Key nuclear tools include vibrational spectroscopy and isotope labelled microplastics. The key objectives are to optimize techniques for microplastic separation and identification, to produce standardized operating procedures (SOPs), to develop new extraction methods, to understand the distribution of microplastics in seafood, standardize tracking approaches, and disseminate findings. Expected outcomes include improved monitoring capacity, development of nuclear techniques, establishment of harmonized protocols, publication of research, and the formation of a global network of experts.