An untargeted evaluation of the volatile and semi-volatile compounds migrating into food simulants from polypropylene food containers by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography-time-of-flight mass spectrometry

Abstract

This study reports on the potential of comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography combined with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC−ToF MS) for the exhaustive untargeted characterization of the volatile and semi-volatile analytes migrating from four commercial polypropylene food containers into four simulants (water, 3% acetic acid, 10% ethanol, and isooctane) according to European Regulation 10/2011. Collected extracts were concentrated and directly subjected to GC×GC−ToF MS analysis without any further treatment to preserve migrants integrity. As expected, the nature and total number of compounds detected in the migrates depended on both the brand (i.e., manufacture and/or sterilization procedure) and the simulant applied. In total, 107 analytes, including some less volatile compounds, were either positively or tentatively identified in the investigated simulants, a number of these compounds being reported for the first time as migrants from this type of material. A database containing chromatographic, mass spectral and partition information concerning these compounds, plus 23 remaining unidentified, is provided.

An overview of chemical contaminants and other undesirable chemicals in alcoholic beverages and strategies for analysis

“…Carrero‐Carralero et al. (2019) have utilized direct injection with 2D GC–ToF MS in the NTA of food simulants, including an alcohol simulant, for the detection and determination of contaminants migrating from PP containers. They were able to identify positively or tentatively a total of 107 migrants, mainly NIAS, with only 23 compounds remaining unidentified.…”

“…Various studies have explored the potential of NIAS entering the food chain through migration from FCMs, using direct extraction from contact materials, food simulants retorted and under short‐term or long‐term storage conditions, or analysis of actual foodstuffs ranging from acidic to neutral pH near the end of the storage shelf life (Carrero‐Carralero et al., 2019; Driffield et al., 2018; Félix, Isella, Bosetti, & Nerín, 2012; Paseiro‐Cerrato et al., 2016; Quek, Sanagi, Wan Ibrahim, Salleh, & Miskam, 2014). Findings indicate that there are a multitude of diverse monomers, oligomers, and other compounds capable of migration, and it was not possible to identify every compound present.…”

Safety of Plastic Food Packaging: The Challenges about Non-Intentionally Added Substances (NIAS) Discovery, Identification and Risk Assessment

“…Table 4 listed scientific publications that determined breakdown products in different types of plastic food packaging. Most of the studies reported degradation products as NIAS, and most of the reported NIAS are degradation products from the antioxidants Irganox 1010 and Irgafos 168 [ 59 , 70 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 ].…”

Research progress on sample pretreatment methods for migrating substances from food contact materials

“…Moreover, the peak capacity should be amplified to analyze hundreds or thousands of migrating substances in a relatively short time. Therefore, coupled chromatographic techniques can satisfy these requirements and have been applied to analyze the migrants from paper [22] and polypropylene articles [23,24]. For unknown NIAS, HRMS such as time‐of‐flight [25–27] and orbitrap [28] can strongly improve the resolution and seek new substances, which have not been shown before.…”