Supramolecular solvent-based all-in-one extractions for comprehensive suspect screening of chemicals in food contact materials

Abstract

Only a minimal fraction of the food contact chemicals (FCCs) estimated to be present in food contact materials (FCMs) have been ever detected (~ 3000 out of 100,000). Identifying as many FCCs as possible is imperative for evaluating their impact on human health. Supramolecular solvent (SUPRAS)-based all-in-one extractions are proposed for the first time for sample treatment of FCMs and combined with liquid chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry for developing comprehensive suspect screening of FCCs. SUPRASs featuring inverted hexagonal and sponge-like nanostructures were investigated for this purpose. Those produced from 1-decanol in ethanol–water media, behaving as restricted access materials for macromolecules, showed excellent performance in terms of interference removal, reproducibility and number of features detected. Sample treatment was simple (only vortex-shaking and centrifugation is required), fast (FCC extraction and FCM cleanup were integrated in a single step) and sustainable (only 100 µL of SUPRAS per sample is required). An in-house suspect list containing 1389 chemicals was developed for FCCs identification. The approach developed was applied to determine 18 plastic- and Tetra-Brik-based FCMs. Twenty-nine FCCs (9 intentionally and 20 non-intentionally added substances; IAS/NIAS) belonging to eight chemical classes were identified. These FCCs featured a wide polarity range (log P − 5.2 to 9.8), thus proving the ability of SUPRASs to develop comprehensive extraction of FCCs and increase the chance of raising the number of FCCs identified (e.g., 18 out of the 29 FCCs found in this study have not been previously reported in FCMs).