In an article published on April 30, 2022, in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, Roman Cariou from Oniris, Nantes, France, and co-authors investigated non-intentionally added substances (NIAS) in coatings of vegetable cans.
For their study, Cariou et al. purchased 12 cans containing different vegetables in France. They analyzed the chemicals extracted from the can coatings with acetonitrile and that migrated into the canned food using non-targeted liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS). The scientists pinpointed over 125 substances. “Oligoesters, a diverse family of unwanted compounds arising from synthesis of polyesters, prevailed in the data set.” The total oligoester concentration in drained vegetables was 330 µg/kg on average. Among the identified NIAS were also diglycidyl ether derivative (BADGE, CAS 1675-54-3) derivatives as well as phenolic oligomers and benzoguanamine derivates, which have not been described previously.
The authors emphasized that their results “support the fact that oligoesters are a major NIAS family of diverse combinations to which the French population is systematically exposed when consuming canned vegetables.” Therefore, they consider a “proper risk assessment” on these NIAS essential.
In an article published on April 24, 2022, in the Journal of Food Science and Technology, Krushna Chapke and co-authors from Dairy Chemistry Division, NDRI, Karnal, India, analyzed the chemicals migrating from low-density polyethylene (LDPE) in Dahi, an ancient Indian curd.
The authors acquired LDPE-based Dahi packaging materials from five different Indian producers and performed extraction and migration experiments using six different solvents as well as Dahi and food simulant as specified by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS, IS 9845:1998), respectively. Subsequently, they subjected the samples to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to assess chemical concentrations and identities.
Chapke et al. reported that the overall migration of chemicals from LDPE into food simulants was below the BIS’ maximum limit of 10 mg/dm2 food packaging. The chemicals migrating into food simulants included plasticizers, antioxidants, fatty acids and their derivates, lubricants, and surfactants. The same chemical categories were also found to migrate into Dahi. The researchers further compared the chemicals extracted from the LDPE packaging with the positive list of polyolefins developed by BIS, and they reported that only 11% of their 76 identified chemicals in extracts were included on the positive list.
Christopher Domínguez-Hernández from Universidad de La Laguna and co-authors also analyzed chemicals migrating from food packaging but with a focus on coffee capsules. In their peer-reviewed article, published in the journal Food Chemistry on April 18, 2022, they prepared coffee from 27 aluminum- or plastic-based capsules obtained in Tenerife using a Nespresso coffee maker. For the targeted analysis of nine phthalic acid esters (PAEs) and di(2-ethylhexyl) adipate (DEHA), they extracted the coffee with the “ammonium formate version of the QuEChERS (Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged and Safe) method” and subjected resulting samples to GC-MS.
The scientists detected the phthalates dibutyl phthalate (DBP, CAS 85-68-7), di-n-pentyl phthalate (DNPP, CAS 131-18-0) and di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP, CAS 17-81-7) as well as di(2-ethylhexyl) adipate (DEHA; CAS 103-23-1) in some of decaffeinated coffee samples in concentrations between 29.3 and 734 ng/capsule. The authors concluded “that QuEChERS ammonium formate version is valid for the study of coffee samples of different intensity and estimated caffeine content.”
References
Cariou, R. et al. (2022). “Thorough investigation of non-volatile substances extractible from inner coatings of metallic cans and their occurrence in the canned vegetables.” Journal of Hazardous Materials. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2022.129026
Chapke, K. et al. (2022). “Migration study of chemical additives from low density polyethylene (LDPE) into dahi.” Journal of Food Science and Technology. DOI: 10.1007/s13197-022-05453-w
Domínguez-Hernández, C. et al. (2022). “Determination of phthalic acid esters and di(2-ethylhexyl) adipate in coffee obtained from capsules.” Food Chemistry. DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2022.132997
