Simultaneous determination of migration amounts of antioxidants and ultraviolet absorbents by high performance liquid chromatography in food contact materials

Abstract

An efficient analytical method for the quantitative determination of migration levels of antioxidants and ultraviolet absorbents in food contact materials by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has been developed. The analytical method showed good linearity with the correlation coefficients (r2) > or = 0.999 8 for all the compounds. The limits of detection were between 0.01 mg/L and 0.22 mg/L and the limits of quantification were in the range of 0.03 to 0.85 mg/L for the 23 analytes. According to the European Union Directive No 10/2011, five food simulants were investigated: 30 g/L acetic acid, 10% (v/v) ethanol, 20% (v/v) ethanol, 50% (v/v) ethanol, and fatty food simulant (isooctane). The recoveries were in the range of 92.8%-117.7%, with the relative standard deviations of 0.95%-9.72%. The effects of different experimental conditions on the recoveries of antioxidants and UV absorbents were studied. The results showed that the method is accurate and stable, and can meet the requirements of European Commission Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 and GB 9685-2008 for the specific migration limits (SML) of the antioxidants and ultraviolet absorbents in real food contact plastic materials and article samples. The method has been applied to determine the migration levels of antioxidants and ultraviolet absorbents in different simulants from the migration tests of 30 batches of food contact material samples.