Screening and tentatively identifying of volatile hazards of desiccant and deoxidizer in food package

Abstract

Food desiccant and deoxidizer are becoming more prevalent in food preservation, where they keep food in good quality for longer periods of time by absorbing moisture and oxygen. In such a way that they are in direct contact with the food inside the food package. However, their safety is still unclear and they must be fully screened and identified. In this study, the volatiles in five representative desiccants and two deoxidizers in the market were screened and tentatively identified by headspace solid-phase microextraction gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS), compared with NIST spectral libraries, and combined with manual analysis. Specific migration limits are provided in accordance with EU NO 10/2011. Risk classes are predicted for substances lacking toxicological data through toxtree software. More than half of the substances were initially screened with toxicological data, seven with specific migration limits, three Cramer III substances, the remainder being Cramer I substances and substances with no risk level. The high-risk substances were further analyzed and traced back to their potential sources. However, there are a few substances for which the potential sources are still unclear and require further research. Despite this, this study has established the safety of desiccant and deoxidizer for use in food to a large extent, providing a solid basis for the future development of the industry.