Background
Microplastics are synthetic polymer particles ranging from 1 μm to 5 mm and are increasingly recognized as emerging contaminants. Regulatory initiatives and reports from World Health Organisation have highlighted the need for quantitative microplastics analysis, particularly for
particle sizes below 20 μm. Food products are of specific interest, as ingestion represents a direct pathway of human exposure.
Raman microscopy is a reference technique for microplastics analysis in this size range, as described in ISO 16094-2:2025. For water-soluble food matrices such as salt, sample preparation involves dissolution, filtration, and subsequent Raman analysis. Appropriate adjustment of the sample mass ensures non-overlapping particles on the filter, enabling reliable detection, sizing, and chemical identification using automated Raman analysis software.
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