Identification of volatile and semi-volatile components in food contact bioplastics based on GC–MS non-targeted screening

Abstract

Bio-based and/or biodegradable materials recently used as a sustainable alternative to conventional petroleum-based materials for food packaging applications may transfer residual monomers, additives as well as non-intentionally added substances (NIAS) into the food. The identification of potential migrating substances is the first and essential step that should be addressed to evaluate the chemical safety of packaging materials. In this work an analytical strategy based on Purge & Trap (P&T)-GC-LRMS and GCsingle bondHRMS has been applied to investigate extractable compounds from bioplastics. Under the optimized conditions, P&T-GC-LRMS method allowed tentatively identifying 100 volatile compounds including, monomers, other starting substances, additives, solvent residues, degradation products, and so on using mass spectral libraries. GCsingle bondHRMS was used to investigate semi-volatile compounds after extraction with acetonitrile, enabling the identification of NIAS, including oligoesters and lactic acid oligomers. Both analytical techniques have proven to be complementary, providing comprehensive information on the volatile and semi-volatile components of the polymeric materials. The identification of extractable compounds, and consequently potential migrating substances, from the packaging materials is the first step that needs to be addressed in a global risk assessment process.