Determination of the Migration of 33 Primary Aromatic Amines from Food Contact Materials and Articles by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry

The commonly used analytical techniques for the detection of primary aromatic amines (PAAs) in food contact materials (FCMs) include gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), capillary electrophoresis (CE), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), HPLC-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS), HPLC-high resolution mass spectrometry (HPLC-HRMS), etc. The migration of PAAs was determined in various types of FCMs using the above-mentioned techniques, such as laminated flexible packaging materials, polyamide cookware, plastic bags, and napkins. For the migration experiment, those methods generally adopted a single contact time and contact temperature, which may deviate from the migration amount occurred in the actualapplication. In contrast, European Union Directive (EU) No 10/2011 (annex Ⅲ) specified the time/temperature conditions for migration test of food simulants and plastics. Therefore, it is reliable to detect the migration of PAAs based on the expected food contact situations including food nature, contact time, and contact temperature for different types of FCMs. In this study, a method of high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) was developed for the determination of the migration of 33 PAAs from FCMs and articles. 20% ethanol, 50% ethanol and 3% acetic acid solutions were used as food simulant solutions to simulate the hydrophilic, lipophilic and acidic food. For FCMs, such as disposable paper cups, colored plastic knives and forks, food bags, plastic milk bottles, pacifiers, etc., they were cut into rectangles with the side lengths of 0.5-1.0 cm. FCM samples of 5 g were weighed in a volumetric flask, and food simulant immersion solution of 100 mL was added. According to the physiochemical properties of the main ingredients in food and whether the FCMs and articles are expected to repeat contact with food, the conditions of food simulant solution and migration experiments were optimized. Chromatographic separation of the migration solution was performed on a Kinetex F5 column by a gradient elution of 0.05% formic acid-methanol solution. The detection was completed in positive electrospray ionization (ESI+) and scheduled multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. The external standard method was used for quantitation. The absolute matrix effects (AMEs) of the 33 PAAs in the migration solution of 20% ethanol, 50% ethanol, and 3% acetic acid (pH 7.0) were 86.1%-97.3%, 88.7%-104.0%, and 62.7%-81.3%, respectively