Abstract
An untargeted strategy aiming at identifying non-intentionally added substances (NIAS) migrating from coatings was developed. This innovative approach was applied to two polyester-polyurethane lacquers, for which suppliers previously provided the identity of the monomers involved. Lacquers were extracted with acetonitrile and analyzed by liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS). Data, acquired in the full scan mode, were processed using an open-source R-environment (xcms and CAMERA packages) to list the detected features and deconvolute them in groups related to individual compounds. The most intense groups, accounting for more than 85% of cumulated feature intensities, were then investigated. A homemade database, populated with predicted polyester oligomer combinations from a relevant selection of diols and diacids, enabled highlighting the presence of 14 and 17 cyclic predicted polyester oligomers in the two lacquers, including three mutual combinations explained by common known monomers. Combination hypotheses were strengthened by chromatographic considerations and by the investigation of fragmentation patterns. Regarding unpredicted migrating substances, four monomers were hypothesised to explain several polyester or caprolactam oligomer series. Finally, considering both predicted and tentatively elucidated unpredicted oligomers, it was possible to assign hypotheses to features representing up to 82% and 90% of the cumulated intensities in the two lacquers, plus 9% and 3% (respectively) originating from the procedural blank. Graphical abstract Elucidation of non-intentionally added substances.
Highlights
In order to preserve food quality, the inner surfaces of metallic food contact materials (FCMs) are coated with polymeric coatings acting as protective barriers
Acetonitrile was selected as a strong extractive solvent to maximize extraction efficiency in order to facilitate the identification of substances possibly migrating in food or food simulants
In the present work, when compared with the positive ionization mode observations, it was considered that the negative mode did not bring any significant additional information, since more intense related signals were usually observed in the positive mode
Summary
In order to preserve food quality, the inner surfaces of metallic food contact materials (FCMs) are coated with polymeric coatings acting as protective barriers. NIAS migrating from lacquer can represent a multitude of compounds To encompass such a possible diversity, a global untargeted analytical strategy was developed using liquid chromatography (LC) coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) to characterize lacquer extracts and give access to their fingerprints. To enable high throughput NIAS identification, the detected compounds were compared with a developed homemade database based on their exact monoisotopic mass. This strategy allowed proposing an identification for the most intense migrating predicted and unpredicted compounds. Such an innovative strategy is expected to increase knowledge of emerging chemical hazards and provide valuable information for efficient risk analysis
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