Tiny, persistent, and now omnipresent: microplastics are moving from the world’s rivers, fields and skies straight into the foods people eat, and researchers warn the implications could be far-reaching even as uncertainty about health effects remains. A wave of new reviews and field studies shows multiple, overlapping pathways by which microplastics (plastic particles smaller than 5 mm, including microscopic “nanoplastics”) are becoming embedded in food systems — from the ocean catch on your plate to the vegetables growing in fields fertilized with treated sewage sludge, and even via airborne fallout that settles on crops and food processing equipment. Regulators and scientists are increasingly treating the