Monitoring of contaminants in recycled paperboard for food contact applications.
BACKGROUND
The lack of harmonized European legislation on food packaging led the Confederation of European Paper Industries to the proposal of a voluntary Industry Guideline for the compliance of paper and board materials for food contact applications. In the present work, a previously established method for the simultaneous determination of contaminants commonly found in recycled paperboard was improved and its applicability as a quality control tool in the paper industry was also assessed. The method involves a sample pre-treatment followed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) analysis.


RESULTS
For analysis, paperboard samples were collected both from three sections of the same reel and from different reels belonging to the same production run. Results highlighted no significant differences in terms of contaminant distribution among samples, which ensured good sampling representativeness. The performance of the method was considerably improved in terms of linearity range, limits of detection and quantification (5- to 2-fold lower) by using a quadrupole GC/MS system instead of an ion trap GC/MS system.


CONCLUSIONS
The proposed method could offer a key strategy for analysis of benzophenone derivatives, diisopropyl naphthalene and phthalates in recycled paperboard in order to assess compliance of food packaging with the voluntary limits recommended by the Industry Guideline. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.
Department of Management, Faculty of Economy, Sapienza University of Rome, Via del Castro Laurenziano 9, I-00161, Rome, Italy.
Vanessa
V
Giannetti
Department of Management, Faculty of Economy, Sapienza University of Rome, Via del Castro Laurenziano 9, I-00161, Rome, Italy.
Maurizio
M
Boccacci Mariani
Department of Management, Faculty of Economy, Sapienza University of Rome, Via del Castro Laurenziano 9, I-00161, Rome, Italy.
Paola
P
Mannino
D001577:Benzophenones / Q000032:analysis; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis; D018857:Food Packaging / Q000295:instrumentation*; D059022:Food Safety; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D010209:Paper / Q000592:standards*; D010795:Phthalic Acids / Q000032:analysis; D059027:Recycling
D001577:Benzophenones; D010795:Phthalic Acids; C032279:phthalic acid; C047723:benzophenone
food packaging; migrating contaminants; paper industry; quality control; recycled paperboard