Target and suspect screening of substances liable to migrate from food contact paper and cardboard materials using liquid chromatography-high resolution tandem mass spectrometry

This work describes the analysis of both target and non-target compounds in paper and cardboard materials together with the characterization of their migration to Tenax by means of liquid chromatography coupled to both low (LC-QqQ) and high resolution tandem mass spectrometry (LC-q-Orbitrap), respectively. To this aim, an entire analytical procedure was fully developed and validated for both matrices: paper/cardboard and Tenax. A total of 97 chemicals, including photoinitiators, phthalates, biocides, antioxidants, etc., listed by the European Regulation, were found in the materials under study together with other substances not included in this list. Moreover, the majority of annotated substances were present in the simulant, giving evidence of their migration capacity. Migration percentages of 10 photoinitiators, 4 phthalates, bisphenol A, bis-(2-ethylhexyl) adipate, acetyltributyl citrate and caprolactam to Tenax (R) were quantified. Despite not exceeding the established specific migration limit (SML) in any case, benzophenone, 4-phenylbenzophenone and bisphenol A concentrations in some paper and cardboard materials were very close to the SML values established by the EU legislation.