Abstract:

Migration investigations were carried out on paper food packaging in contact with dry food simulant Tenax TA. The aim was to explore the migration behaviours of 4-cumylphenol (CP) and 4-tert-butylphenyl salicylate (TBS) as potential contaminants, from paper materials to Tenax TA at different migration temperatures for variant migration times. A method based on ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography coupled with fluorescence detection (UPLC-FLR) was developed to determine CP and TBS migrated into the simulant. Two independent migration tests performed under open system and closed system were contrastively studied. At the same time, a series of migration tests by using different masses of Tenax TA to contact round paper samples with the diameter of 3.5 cm was conducted to explore the proper ratio between the mass of Tenax TA and the area of food packaging sample. Based on the analytical results, high temperature and long contact time had positive effect on the migration rate of the contaminants. However, persistent high migration temperature would lead to decrease the migration rate due to desorption of CP and TBS from Tenax TA. Migration rate in closed system was higher than that in open system. In the process of migration test, a ratio of 4.16 g/dm² was an appropriate experimental condition to conduct the migration test. All of the migration results revealed that the proper ratio of mass of Tenax TA to area of paper sample was the key to conduct the exposure assessment of food contact materials.

Key words: 4-tert-butylphenyl salicylate, 4-cumylphenol (CP), dry food simulant, fluorescence detection (FLR), food contact materials, migration, Tenax TA, ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography (UPLC)