Determination of perfluorooctane sulfonate and perfluorooctanoic acid in food packaging using liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry

Abstract

This research aimed to monitor the amounts of PFOS and PFOA in food packaging and study the migration of PFOS and PFOA from food packaging, using a saliva simulant and pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) technique. Liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was employed to determine residues of PFOS and PFOA by using a gradient reversed-phase method with ammonium acetate/acetonitrile buffer. A good linearity was established for PFOS and PFOA in a range of 0.05-10μgL -1 , with R 2 ≥0.9998. Of the samples extracted by methanol, the highest concentration of PFOS was found in fast-food container samples, at a level of 92.48ngdm -2 . For PFOA, the highest concentration in samples extracted by methanol was found in ice cream cup samples, at a level of 16.91ngdm -2 . The amounts of PFOS and PFOA that migrated from food packaging samples through contact with saliva simulant were 4.80 and 4.55ngdm -2 , respectively. Saliva simulant could leach PFOS and PFOA from the group of the thickest paper samples (≤1dm 2 g -1 ) at levels of 7.01 and 6.41ngdm -2 , respectively, indicating that paper with greater thickness and less area might release larger quantities of coated/added PFOS or PFOA. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.