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[Display omitted] • MPs contamination of Italian and Spanish vegetable edible oils was investigated. • MPs were detected in all samples which were stocked in both PET and glass bottles. • Automatic µ-FTIR spectroscopy was used for MPs detection and characterization. • PE and PP were the most abundant polymers in the analyzed oil samples. • MPs with size < 100 μm were more frequent in all oil samples. In this work, assessment of microplastics (MPs) in commercial vegetable edible oils from Italy and Spain, including extra-virgin olive oil, olive oil, sunflower oil, and mixed seed oil, has been conducted for the first time. The method was based on sample dilution with ethanol: n -hexane (1:3, v/v), homogenization, vacuum filtration on macroporous silicon filters with 5 μm pore diameter to collect MPs, and automatic µ-FTIR spectroscopy for MPs detection and characterization. In the analysis of oil samples, a mean MPs abundance of 1140 ± 350 MPs/L was found. Observed MPs were characterized, being most of them fragments (81.2 %), with particle sizes < 100 µm (77.5 %), and mainly composed of polyethylene (50.3 %) and polypropylene (28.7 %), among others. Statistical analysis revealed that there were not significant differences (p-value > 0.05) in the abundance of MPs between oil samples or types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]