The context

Currently, the European Union through the European Agency for Chemical Products (ECHA) has proposed to restrict the intentional use of microplastics; this decision has been supported by the technical committee RAC (Committee for Risk Assessment) and SEAC (Committee for Socio-Economic Analysis) and there is currently a public consultation open until September 1. You will find all the information here: https://echa.europa.eu/es/hot-topics/microplastics    Therefore the use and presence of microplastics is an extremely topical issue and that, beyond environmental interests, there are economic interests that anyone can imagine.

The Institut Català del Suro Foundation (ICSuro) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote the cork sector from the forest to the final consumer, and from this mission derives a commitment to the well-being of people and the our environment in a context of rational and sustainable economic development.

Background

thearticle published on our website is based on the information obtained in the article recently published by the magazine Food Chemistry called "Identification of microplastics in white wines capped with polyethylene stoppers using micro-Raman spectroscopy"[1].

The authors specifically state in the article itself that “they are not aware of any competing financial interests or personal relationships that may have influenced the preparation of the article".

Due to the controversy caused by the article prepared by researchers from the University of Aveiro Joana Prata, Ana Paço, Vanessa Reis, Joao Da Costa, António Fernandes, Florinda Costa, Armando Duarte and Teresa Rocha-Santos, they have published a clarification about it[2] dated July 15, 2020. This clarification is available at the following email address: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343021466_Comment_Microplastics_in_white_wines

Amendment to the ICSuro web news

Based on this clarification recently published by the authors, and following our commitment to the strict veracity and rigor of the information we share, we have re-edited the title and text of the article so as not to contribute to misinformation and misinterpretations.

With this clarification, we also want to sincerely apologize to all those people and organizations who may have been affected by our publication.

Albert Hereu
Director of the Institut Català del Suro Foundation
07/08/2020

[1] Silver, C. et. at the. (2020). Identification of microplastics in white wines capped with polyethylene stoppers using micro-Raman spectroscopy. Food Chemistry, 331, 127323. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2020.127323

[2] Prata, Joana & Paço, Ana & Reis, Vanessa & Da Costa, Joao & Fernandes, António & Costa, Florinda & Duarte, Armando & Rocha-Santos, Teresa. (2020). Comment: Microplastics in white wines. Comment on Prata JC et al. 2020. Identification of microplastic in white wines capped with polyethylene stoppers using micro-Raman spectroscopy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2020.127323