This application note demonstrates quantitative analysis of food packaging samples by thermally desorbing the sample into a GC-MS.
Food packaging is used to protect food against microbiological, chemical and physical contamination. However, the interactions between the food packaging and the content may actually lead to alterations in the food quality. Two types of such interactions have been extensively studied as (1) migration of substances from packaging to food1,2, where organic compounds, such as adhesive, ink solvent, plasticisers, photoinitiators, perfluorochemicals, leached from the container into the content, and (2) scalping by the packaging3 , where the flavor and antioxidant in the food are absorbed by the container.
In this application note, various types of food packaging samples were tested against a list of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are either known as compounds that may migrate into food or flavor additives that were adsorbed by the packaging. The analysis was performed on a CDS 7550S thermal desorber that was connected to a GC-MS.
Six food packaging samples were cut from two different brands of chocolate, one sandwich cookie, one instant noodle, one potato chips, and one energy bar. All samples had the same dimension as 1” x 1”. Each sample was individually weighed and folded into a ¼” OD x 3.5” L empty quartz tube (Camsco, Houston, TX). Then each tube was loaded into the 7550S thermal desorber, purged at 35 °C with purging gas to remove air, and sequentially heated at 60 °C for 10 minutes to release VOCs, which were collected onto a 1/8” x 115 mm inert coated refocusing trap packed with Carbograph 1 60/80 and Carbograph 5 60/80. The trap was heated at 300 °C for 3 minutes to transfer all the analytes to a Shimadzu GC-MS QP-2010 for analysis.
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