Fractionation of extracts from paper and board food contact materials forin vitroscreening of toxicity

Abstract

Paper and board used as food contact materials (FCMs) are chemically complex matrices, partly due to the naturally occurring substances in paper and board, but also due to the chemical treatment of the paper used to make it suitable for food contact. In order to assure the safety of packaging materials, information on the exposure as well as on the toxicity of substances in the packaging must be obtained. This study describes a comprehensive method for the extraction and fractionation of substances present in paper and board FCMs for further investigation by in vitro testing and chemical analysis. The extraction efficiency and the fractionation process were validated by determining recoveries in extracts from paper and board fortified with five surrogates of known concentration. The recoveries for the five surrogates were between 20% and 104% in the raw extract and between 21% and 109% after extraction and fractionation. The fractionation both reduces the number of compounds to be identified and works as a sample clean-up by reducing matrix effects. Raw extracts and fractions from two paper and board FCMs were furthermore tested in the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) reporter gene assay. Both raw extracts and two of the fractions of the raw extracts gave a positive response in the AhR assay. The strategy of extraction followed by fractionation offers a powerful tool in order to make the workflow for screening FCMs for potentially adverse effects more efficient.

Determinación de la actividad tóxica de extractos optimizados de Palmaria y Porphyra para el tratamiento de la lesión por isquemia/reperfusión

“…En primer lugar, al tratarse de extractos brutos en los que no ha habido fraccionamiento, purificación o aislamiento de las diferentes fases, como en otros trabajos con diversas matrices [19,33,35,53,54], los NOAEL y las LC 50 obtenidos para cada extracto podrían verse afectados por la mortalidad causada por el pH o la concentración salina de dicho extracto. Estos efectos podrían cuantificarse realizando ensayos toxicológicos con las diferentes fracciones del extracto para detectar aquellas que muestren actividad tóxica [55].…”

Evaluation of the presence of potential hazardous substances from plastic and textile fibre recycling

“…As a consequence, the only way to assess if a plastic or textile transfers substances of concern into foods and/or the environment is to test overall migrant toxicity through the use of bioassays. Bengtström et al (2014) completed a study on an interdisciplinary strategy for the screening and identification of substances with potential adverse health effects in food packaging materials. A comprehensive extraction process, compatible with both chemical and toxicological analysis, was developed, which consisted of a purge-and-trap method for small volatile organic substances, and a boiling ethanol reflux system for semi-and non-volatile substances.…”

Review of analytical approaches for the identification of non-intentionally added substances in paper and board food contact materials

“…Volatile compounds have been extracted from paper and board, as well as from polymer packaging using headspacesolid phase micro extraction (HS-SPME) (Burman et al, 2005;Félix et al, 2012;Sanchis et al, 2017;Kassouf et al, 2013;Canellas et al, 2012), normal headspace extraction (Castle et al, 1997a), and purge-and-trap methods (Bengtström, 2014). Many extractions have also been performed by application of Soxhlet (Bengtström et al, 2014;Chalbot et al, 2006;Bengtström, 2014;Canellas et al, 2012;Bradley & Coulier, 2007;Weber et al, 2006;Vera et al, 2013) or reflux distillation (Bengtström, 2014;Bengtström et al, 2016;Bhunia et al, 2013;Ozaki et al, 2005;Brenz et al, 2016) to obtain semi-and non-volatile compounds from paper and polymer…”

“…compounds can migrate through the paper or board into the foodstuffs (Bengtström et al, 2014;Eicher et al, 2015). The presence of, possibly toxic, NIAS is often not known by the manufacturer itself (Geueke, 2013).…”