Plastics for Dinner: Store-bought seafood, but not wild-caught, is a source of microplastics to human consumers

Maintenance and Update Frequency: notPlanned ; Statement: See Supplementary Information of Dawson et al. 2022, methods used to prevent background MP contamination of samples throughout analysis, full QA/QC, descriptions of Reagents and Consumables.\n ; Credit Kroon, FJ. AIMS and JCU ; Credit Dawson, AL. Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and James Cook University (JCU) ; Credit Li, JYQ. AIMS@JCU and JCU ; Microplastics (MP) contamination was assessed in wild-caught organisms obtained from commercial fishers working in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Queensland, (Australia) in March 2019.\n MP contamination was assessed in both the edible (muscle) and inedible (GIT) tissues of four commercial seafood organisms commonly caught and consumed in Australia:Common Coral Trout (Plectropomus leopardus), Barramundi (Lates calcifer), Blue Legged King Prawns (Melicertus latisulcatus), and Ballots Saucer Scallop (Ylistrum balloti)\n Filleted barramundi muscle tissues, purchased from local seafood suppliers, were also analysed for MPs, to determine whether MP contamination is introduced through the consumer supply chain.\n Samples were analysed using attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) or microimaging ATR-FTIR (µFTIR). Physical characteristics of each confirmed synthetic particle were described in terms of shape (fibre or fragment), size and colour from the microscopic photographs. Fibres were defined as elongated particles with a relatively homogenous width throughout, and distinctly parallel sides. All other items were defined as fragments. Fibre length and width was determined, for particles, length determined, and colour for all particles recorded (white and transparent particles were grouped).\n MP abundance in seafood was calculated as MP g tissue-1 (w.w) or MP sample-1. Unpaired T-tests were used to explore the concentration of MPs extracted from the store-bought fillets and the wild fish. A general linear model with Gaussian distribution was used to explore ...