Request for Information on Microplastics in Farmed Salmon since April 2021

Your request was about the following information:

Q1. Please provide information on microplastics in farmed salmon and plastic contamination of farmed salmon since 24 April 2021.

Q2. Please include any scientific studies, testing, reports, data, analysis, samples, photos or any other information in relation to microplastics in farmed salmon and wild salmon.

Q3. Please include any emails, letters, correspondence and any other information in relation to microplastic pollution of salmon farming and microplastic contamination of salmon farms.

Q4. Please include any correspondence with other government bodies such as SEPA, Marine Scotland and the Food Standards Agency?

As background, FOI replies were made by FSS in April 2021:

https://www.foodstandards.gov.scot/freedom-of-information/foi-responses/microplastics-insalmon

And in May 2018: https://www.foodstandards.gov.scot/freedom-of-information/foiresponses/microplastics-testing-and-farmed-salmon

Please note that Marine Scotland found microplastics in surface waters - of the 81 Scottish locations tested in 2021 and 2022, 64 contained microplastics:

https://theferret.scot/microplastics-80-per-cent-scottish-coastal-waters/

And salmon farming giant Mowi (Scotland's largest salmon farmer) has found microplastics in farmed salmon and fish oil:

https://www.salmonbusiness.com/mowi-looks-for-microplastics-in-its-farmed-salmon/

Microplastic pollution from salmon farms has been highlighted in Iceland:

https://nasf.is/en/farmed-salmon-factories-pump-microplastics-into-icelands-clean-waters-andon-the-consumers-plate/

And Norway:

https://www.fishfarmingexpert.com/aquaculture-salmon/feed-pipe-wear-putting-tonnes-ofplastic-into-sea/1257139

Food Standards Scotland (FSS) does not hold any data on either microplastics in farmed salmon monitoring or plastic contamination of farmed salmon and is not legally required to undertake routine surveillance in this area. There are currently no regulatory standards for microplastics in food and feed and methods for measuring microplastics in these matrices have not yet been standardised and harmonised.

In February 2021, the UK Scientific Advisory Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (CoT) published an over-arching statement on the potential risks from exposure to microplastics. In this paper, the CoT noted that the lack of appropriate and harmonised analytical methods was a key barrier to assessing the public health risks associated with oral exposure to microplastics (e.g. via the consumption of contaminated food). This concurs with conclusions drawn by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in their 2016 review of the Presence of microplastics and nanoplastics in food, which recommended the need for further work to develop and standardise methods to enable the detection and quantification of microplastics in food. The CoT also made a number of recommendations for research in this area including the collection of data on microplastics in different food types (e.g. seafood, edible meat tissue and offal, vegetables, fruit, drinks) and matrices (i.e. air, soil, food and water) and the impact of the effect of cooking on the desorption and subsequent bioavailability of contaminants/leachates.

FSS works closely with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to review scientific developments in this area. Progress to date includes the publication, by FSA, of a Critical review of microbiological colonisation of nano- and microplastics (NMPs) and their significance to the food chain.