Characterization and assessment of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emissions from the typical food manufactures in Jiangsu province, China

Abstract

Food manufacture is a significant source of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) contamination. The VOCs characterizations of the typical food manufactures in Jiangsu province were studied during May 19th and June 6th, 2017. Several VOCs were found in the air samples of the studied food manufactures boundary and the total concentration varied from 0.178 to 0.968 mg m−3. The difference of the raw materials and the production processes resulted in the different pollution characteristics of the VOCs. Oxygenated volatile organic compounds (OVOCs) were all abundant in the VOCs emitted from the studied food factories varying from 69.6 to 98.9%. Odor index (OI) was calculated to estimate the olfactory nuisances of the VOC emissions. The total OIs (TOIs) showed that the unorganized VOCs emission of all the studied enterprises had odor pollution to the atmosphere environment. OVOCs were the largest contributors to the odor pollution ranging from 79.6 to 99.9%. Maximum increment reactivity (MIR) was used to evaluate the ozone formation potential (OFP) for the major VOC species. The OFPs for the VOCs emitted from the studied food manufactures were ranging from 0.294 to 0.792 mg m−3. Not all of the species with large emissions had large OFP contributions and some species with relatively small emissions could contribute largely to the OFPs. OVOCs contributed to the total OFPs varying from 55.3 to 98.1%. The VOCs did not pose non-carcinogenic risk to the exposed population. The carcinogenic risks of the VOCs were above the acceptable level proposed by EPA (1 × 10−6).