Optimization of mass spectrometry acquisition parameters for determination of polycarbonate additives, degradation products, and colorants migrating from food contact materials to chocolate

Abstract

The interest towards "substances of emerging concerns" referred to objects intended to come into contact with food is recently growing. Such substances can be found in traces in simulants and in food products put in contact with plastic materials. In this context, it is important to set up analytical systems characterized by high sensitivity and to improve detection parameters to enhance signals. This work was aimed at optimizing a method based on UHPLC coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry to quantify the most common plastic additives, and able to detect the presence of polymers degradation products and coloring agents migrating from plastic re-usable containers. The optimization of mass spectrometric parameter settings for quantitative analysis of additives has been achieved by a chemometric approach, using a full factorial and d-optimal experimental designs, allowing to evaluate possible interactions between the investigated parameters. Results showed that the optimized method was characterized by improved features in terms of sensitivity respect to existing methods and was successfully applied to the analysis of a complex model food system such as chocolate put in contact with 14 polycarbonate tableware samples. A new procedure for sample pre-treatment was carried out and validated, showing high reliability. Results reported, for the first time, the presence of several molecules migrating to chocolate, in particular belonging to plastic additives, such Cyasorb UV5411, Tinuvin 234, Uvitex OB, and oligomers, whose amount was found to be correlated to age and degree of damage of the containers.

Permanently Positively Charged Stable Isotope Labeling Agents and Its Application in the Accurate Quantitation of Alkylphenols Migrated from Plastics to Edible Oils

“…Although food simulate is easier to analyze, the migration behavior in food simulate might be different from that in real food samples. Therefore, it is ideal to use real food samples to study the migration behavior . However, food matrices are usually much more complex than those of food simulate, and thus efficient sample preparation and analysis skills are necessary.…”

“…Therefore, it is ideal to use real food samples to study the migration behavior. 30 However, food matrices are usually much more complex than those of food simulate, and thus efficient sample preparation and analysis skills are necessary. In this study, the migration test was carried out using peanut oil, a kind of preferred edible oil in China.…”

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

“…Headspace analysis (Nerin et al, 2004) or direct MS techniques such as DART (direct analysis in real time) have been applied (Bentayeb et al, 2012). Analysis of foodstuffs have been performed less when the objective was to know what compounds were part of the packaging material (Bignardi et al, 2018).…”

Improving Minced Meat Quality by Edible Antimicrobial Polymers and Gamma Radiation

“…Chitosan (CS) is a carbohydrate obtained via alkaline deacetylation of chitin which has antimicrobial activity without toxicity to humans as it is biodegradable, nontoxic, antigenic, antimicrobial and biocompatible (Sahariah et al, 2017). PC is a synthetic compound found in plastics used in food packaging (Bignardi et al, 2018).…”