The Malaysian Journal of Analytical Sciences Vol 12 No 3 (2008): 542 – 551

 

DETERMINATION OF RESIDUAL VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS MIGRATED FROM POLYSTYRENE FOOD PACKAGING INTO FOOD SIMULANT BY HEADSPACE SOLID PHASE MICROEXTRACTION-GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY

 

M. Marsin Sanagi*, Susie Lu Ling, Zalilah Nasir, Wan Aini Wan Ibrahim, Ahmedy Abu Naim

 

Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia,

81310 UTM Skudai, Johor, Malaysia

 

*Corresponding author: marsin@kimia.fs.utm.my

 

Abstract

The residual styrene and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs) present in the polystyrene food packaging are of concern as these compounds have the potential to migrate into the food in contact. This work describes a method for quantitative determination of VOCs, namely styrene, toluene, ethylbenzene, iso-propylbenzene and n-propylbenzene that have migrated from  polystyrene  food  packaging  into  food  simulant  by  gas  chromatography-flame  ionization  detection  (GC-FID). Headspace solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) technique was applied for migration test using water as food simulant. The effects of extraction variables  including sample volume, elutropic strength, extraction temperature, extraction time, desorption time, sample  agitation, and salt addition on the amounts of the extracted analytes were studied to obtain the optimal HS-SPME conditions. The optimized method was applied to test the VOCs migrated from polystyrene bowls and cups at storage temperatures ranging from 24°C to 80°C for 30 min. Styrene and ethylbenzene were found to migrate from the samples into the  food  simulant. The migration  of analyte  was  found  to be  strongly  dependent upon  the storage temperature. The HS-SPME is useful as an alternative method to determine the migration of VOCs from food packaging material into food simulant.

 

Keywords: Styrene, Volatile organic compounds, Food packaging, Headspace solid phase microextraction,

Gas chromatography.

 

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