Microplastics in Agriculture and Food Science

Prof. Avino studies the development of innovative analytical methodologies for development and application of analytical and sampling methods for the qualitative and quantitative determination of chemical compounds (e.g., contaminants, pollutants, nutrients) in food, agricultural, biological and anthropogenic matrices. These studies are aimed at evaluating inorganic and organic species present at trace and ultra-trace levels in food and environmental (smoke, air, water and soil) matrices, as well as the evaluation of the environmental and human health risks related to the exposure/ingestion of such compounds. In 1998 he received both the “Group Achievement NASA Award” and the “Next Generation Award” ( 22nd International Symposium on Chromatography). He has also received the “Environmental Sapio” Award for his research in the environmental field and in particular in the atmospheric particulate matter problems. Prof. Avino is author and co-author of scientific publications including original papers published in national and international journals and books. Cristina DiFiore is a Ph.D. student working in the Analytical Chemistry group working on the research on microplastics in several matrices. She has previously published with Prof. Dr. Avino Stefano Farris is Full Professor at the Department of Food, Environmental and Nutritional Sciences (DeFENS) – University of Milan. His research focuses on the design and development of new high-performance materials using mainly biomacromolecules, by means of different approaches such as soft chemistry and nanotechnology. His research firstly deals with fundamental aspects to provide new suitable practical solutions, especially for the food packaging sector. This is accomplished by strong and fruitful collaborations with several industrial partners.

Part I: The Contaminants of the 21st Century: An Introduction to Microplastics
1. Plastics in the Agricultural Field
2. Plastics in the Food Sector
3. Principle Plastic Polymers in Agricultural and Food Sectors
4. From Plastics to Microplastics

Part II: Analytical Methodologies for Microplastics Determination: between Limitations and Innovations
5. Sampling Methods for Microplastics Determination
6. Pre-treatment of Food and Agricultural Matrices for Microplastics Extraction
7. Analytical Methodologies for Qualification of Microplastics
8. Quantification of Microplastics: A Call for Method Harmonization
9. Polymer Solubilization: A Potential Solution for Microplastics Quantification
10. Quality Assurance and Quality Control: The Prevention of Airborne Contamination

Part III: Microplastics in agriculture
11. Microplastics Contamination in Soil
12. Microplastics Contamination in Crops
13. Artificial Crop Irrigation and Microplastics
14. Microplastics and Agricultural Vehicle Tires
15. Fertilizers and Microplastics Contamination of Crops
16. Atmospheric Particulates and Microplastics

Part IV: Microplastics in farm animals
17. Feed Production Process and Microplastics Contamination
18. Microplastics in Farm Animals: Health Effects
19. Microplastics: From Animal to Human

Part V: Microplastics in the food sector
20. Food Processing and microplastics
21. Food Packaging and Potential Microplastics Release
22. Food Pyramid and Microplastics

Part VI: Human exposure to microplastics
23. Are We Eating Microplastics?
24. Microplastics in Food Production and Agricultural Environments

Part VII: Contaminants associated with microplastics
25. Microplastics and plasticizers
26. Microplastics and organic contaminants
27. Microplastics and inorganic contaminants

Part IIX: Fate of microplastics and toxicological studies
28. Translocation of microplastics in human tissue
29. Microplastics and potential damage to human cells
30. 3-D models for studing microplastics effects on humans

Part IX: Additional Topics and Considerations
31. Use of agricultural products as bio-indicators
32. Potential solutions in the agriculture and food sector
33. Regulatory Gaps in Microplastics Field in food and agriculture sectors