Webinar: Micro & Nanoplastics - Implications in Food Safety

Webinar: Micro & Nanoplastics: Implications in Food Safety

Micro and nanoplastics are now part of everyday life, with inhalation and ingestion recognised as the primary exposure pathways. Yet significant gaps remain in our understanding of how much we are exposed to, where these exposures originate, and what happens to these particles once inside the body.

This webinar will present recent research from the Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS) at the University of Queensland, including findings from an Australian dietary survey examining ingestion exposures. Emerging evidence suggests that commonly consumed beverages such as beer, wine, bottled water and tap water may represent key exposure sources. The session will also explore how plastic shedding from food contact materials, including storage containers, baby bottles and kettles, may contribute to contamination.

In addition, the presentation will examine the analytical challenges associated with detecting and quantifying small micro and nanoplastics in complex food and beverage matrices, and what this means for risk assessment and regulatory considerations.

This session is relevant to food safety professionals, regulators, researchers, quality assurance teams and industry stakeholders seeking to better understand the implications of micro and nanoplastics for the food supply chain.

Learning outcomes:

By the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:

• Identify the primary ingestion pathways for micro and nanoplastics in the Australian diet.
• Explain how food contact materials may contribute to microplastic contamination in foods and beverages.
• Understand current analytical limitations in detecting and quantifying micro and nanoplastics, and the implications for food safety assessment and regulation.

Speaker: Dr Cassandra Rauert

Dr Cassandra Rauert is a Senior Research Fellow at the Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS), University of Queensland. She is the microplastics project lead in the Minderoo Centre-Plastics and Human Health, investigating human exposure pathways to micro and nanoplastics and developing new methods for detection in human matrices. Her other research interests include the impact of tyre road wear particles and their chemical additives on the environment and developing novel biomonitoring methods for assessing human exposure to chemicals of concern.