SUMMARY

Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) contamination in crops is a major concern due to its bioaccumulative nature and potential risks to human health. In our study in Belgium, we evaluated the effectiveness of RemBind® in reducing PFOS uptake in plants, demonstrating its ability to significantly decrease contamination levels in spinach.

• In untreated conditions, total PFAS levels in spinach growing on a 20 µg/kg polluted soil were 0.67 µg/kg, exceeding the EU guideline for PFAS in vegetables (0.04 µg/kg) by more than 16 times.
• With RemBind® application, PFAS uptake was progressively reduced: 84% at 0.25% RemBind® (1.76 µg/kg), 88% at 0.5% (1.29 µg/kg), and 94% at 0.75% (0.61 µg/kg).
• Specifically for PFOS, concentrations in spinach dropped from 0.31 µg/kg (untreated) to 0.08 µg/kg at 0.75% RemBind®, a 74% reduction, bringing it safely below the EU food limit for PFOS.
• Other PFAS compounds, including PFOA, PFNA, and PFHxS, were also effectively reduced to safe levels in spinach at the highest treatment level.
• Compared to previous studies where stabilization techniques like powdered activated carbon (PAC) achieved up to 99.9% PFAS leaching reduction (Bräunig et al., 2021; Sörengård et al., 2019), RemBind® demonstrates strong potential as a sorbent for PFAS remediation in agriculture.
• With 0.75% w/w RemBind® we reached complete compliance with EU thresholds.