Abstract
This study was focused on child-dedicated chocolate food products that contain a plastic package with a small toy inside (also known as chocolate eggs). Three types of these products that are commercially available on the Polish market, with different prices, chocolate composition, and main types of polymers used in the toy manufacturing process, were investigated. The polymers were identified using Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) analysis and emissions of selected toxic volatile organic compounds of toy and packaging samples were identified using stationary emission micro-chamber. Total volatile organic compounds emissions were also estimated. Moreover, the content of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) as bioaccumulative semi-volatile organic compounds was checked in all parts of the cheapest product. The highest PBDE concentrations, which ranged from 5.32 ± 0.79 to 1768 ± 289 ng/g, were recorded in chocolate samples. This demonstrates the need for consumer knowledge on the safety of such products available on the Polish market to be broadened. This is one of the many examples of studies showing that products sold on the European market do not always comply with the Conformité Européenne (CE) declaration of conformity. Furthermore, the presence of phased-out PBDEs in toys may provide evidence of wrong recycling practices. Forward-looking considerations showed that, based on assessments of the hazard quotient (HQ) and cancer risk of BDE-209 and assuming each child has contact with one toy and eats one of the studied chocolate products per day, there is no high risk associated with the exposure of children to PBDEs.
Highlights
Plastic materials are considered some of the main sources of the emission of volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds (VOCs and SVOCs, respectively) into the environment (Noguchi and Yamasaki 2020)
We evaluated the content of BTEX, styrene, Total volatile organic compounds (TVOC) and 8 representative polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in the different parts of 3 types of commercially available child-dedicated chocolate food products inside which toys are placed
Compared to the other two groups of polymeric materials, the studied toys in this group were very hard to cut or crush into small pieces suitable for use in further steps in the analytical procedure associated with PBDEs analysis
Summary
Plastic materials are considered some of the main sources of the emission of volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds (VOCs and SVOCs, respectively) into the environment (Noguchi and Yamasaki 2020). Emission of these chemicals is a very important phenomenon, especially in the case of synthetic polymeric materials and products that have direct contact with food products (food contact materials, FCMs), due to the possibility of chemicals directly migrating from these plastic materials into food products (Szczepańska et al 2018; Bauer et al 2019; Martinez-Bueno et al 2019). It sets out restrictions on the use of these substances, and lays down rules for the compliance of plastic materials and articles (European Union 2011)
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