Wide occurrence of seven phthalate plasticizers and two typical microplastics in pig feed

Plastics are widely used as packaging and engineering materials in feed processing, which leads to the potential contamination of plasticizers and microplastics (MPs) in animal feeds. In this study, the concentrations of two typical MPs, i.e., polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polycarbonate (PC), and seven phthalates (PAEs) as well as their corresponding monoester metabolites (mPAEs) in 45 pig feed samples in China were analyzed by mass spectrometers. Among PAEs, dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) were detected in all samples, and DEHP showed the highest concentrations of 8.26–2464 μg/kg, which accounted for 65.6% of the total detected PAEs. PET MPs (