![]() ![]() Recently, the importance of determining the presence of PAE in food, beverages, and in their packaging has become increasingly evident. In a recent cross-sectional study, a number of PAEs metabolites have been evaluated in pregnant women’s hair in Crete, namely monoethylhexyl phthalate (MEHP, 68%) and monoisobutyl phthalate (MiBP, 40%) that were likely associated with the use of cosmetics and plastics. In addition to incidental intake of environmental contaminants present in the soil, water, and air, mouthing of phthalate-containing products, other sources of exposure are the dermal route, through skin absorptions from cosmetic and clothing, and intravenous injection. Therefore, in recent years, the diet through PAEs-contaminated food intake and drinking water has been considered the major route of human exposure, accounting for more than 67%. In addition to their release into the environment during the productive up to the elimination route of plastic-based products, these compounds can easily migrate into food and beverage from various food contact materials during processing, storing, transportation, and preparation. PAEs can enter food via several routes, i.e., oral, nasal, and transdermal. Moreover, due to their environmental persistence and, therefore, bioaccumulation along the food chain, they are considered highly risk pollutants for their negative impact on the environment and living organisms. There is a mounting concern about the ability of PAEs to disrupt hormones and negatively regulate reproductive apparatus. The structure of the most commonly used PAEs is shown in Table 1. PAEs are of great economic and commercial interest thanks to their diverse applications in plastic-based consumer products, such as building materials (flooring and wall coverings, and electric cables), baby toys, clothing, printing inks, packaging materials, pesticides, personal care and cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, as well as medical devices. They are usually added to plastic materials, such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyvinyl acetate (PVA), and polyethylene (PE), at the percentage of 10% up to 60% of PAEs by weight, in order to improve extensibility, elasticity, and workability of the polymers. Phthalates (PAEs) are esters of phthalic acid widely spread in many industrial applications, being the main plasticizers used in the polymer industry since the 1930s. The continuous exposure to different types of chemicals present in the environment and to which humans are exposed during their daily activities may adversely affect human health, and thus represents a global issue. In this review we provide an overview of phthalate toxicity, pointing out the health and legal issues related to their occurrence in several types of food and beverage. However, due to their different physical and chemical properties, phthalates do not have the same human and environmental impacts and their association to several human diseases is still under debate. Moreover, many authors reported high concentrations of phthalates in soft drinks, mineral waters, wine, oil, ready-to-eat meals, and other products, as a possible consequence of their accumulation along the food production chain and their accidental release from packaging materials. In the last decades, phthalates and their metabolites have proven to be of concern, particularly in products for pregnant women or children. People and animals can be exposed through different routes (i.e., ingestion, inhalation, dermal, or iatrogenic exposure), as these compounds can be easily released from plastics to water, food, soil, air, making them ubiquitous environmental contaminants. Phthalates are a huge class of chemicals with a wide spectrum of industrial uses, from the manufacture of plastics to food contact applications, children’s toys, and medical devices. ![]()
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