Full length article
Organophosphate esters (OPEs) in plastic food packaging: non-target recognition, and migration behavior assessment

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2023.108010Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • A HRMS-based screening strategy was developed to identify novel OPEs;

  • Forty-two OPEs were identified in plastic food packaging samples;

  • Seven novel OPE structures were reported for the very first time;

  • Oxidation of OPAs could be an important source for OPEs in plastics;

  • OPEs exhibited great migration potentials from plastic food packaging to isooctane.

Abstract

Organophosphate esters (OPEs) are widely used as plasticizers in plastic food packaging; however, the migration of OPEs from plastic to food is largely unstudied. We do not even know the specific number of OPEs that exist in the plastic food packaging. Herein, an integrated target, suspect, and nontarget strategy for screening OPEs was optimized using ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography–high-resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC–HRMS). The strategy was used to analyze 106 samples of plastic food packaging collected in Nanjing city, China, in 2020. HRMS allowed full or tentative identification of 42 OPEs, of which seven were reported for the first time. Further, oxidation products of bis(2,4-di-tert-butylphenyl) pentaerythritol diphosphite (AO626) in plastics were identified, implying that the oxidation of organophosphite antioxidants (OPAs) could be an important indirect source of OPEs in plastics. The migration of OPEs was examined with four simulated foods. Twenty-six out of 42 OPEs were detected in at least one of the four simulants, particularly isooctane, in which diverse OPEs were detected at elevated concentrations. Overall, the study supplements the list of OPEs that humans could ingest as well as provides essential information regarding the migration of OPEs from plastic food packaging to food.

Keywords

Organophosphate esters (OPEs)
Food contact plastics
High-resolution Mass Spectrometry
Nontarget Screening
Migration

Data availability

Data will be made available on request.

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