Occurrence of 2,2,4-trimethyl-1,3-pentanediol monoisobutyrate (Texanol®) in foods packed in polystyrene and polypropylene cups

Michael Kempf (1) , Peter Schreier (2)

1 Chair of Food Chemistry
2 Chair of Food Chemistry

After simultaneous distillation-extraction (SDE) of foods packed in polystyrene cups (n=77) as well as in polypropylene cups (n= 42) from 61 different suppliers, analyses performed by coupled capillary gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HRGC-MS) revealed the presence of the diastereomers of 2,2,4-trimethyl-1.3-pentanediol monoisobutyrate (TMPD-MIB; Texanol®), a known coalescent of paints and printing inks. The contaminant was found in 55 and 50% of the polystyrene and polypropylene packed samples, respectively. Amounts ranged from 1.2 to 64.5 µg kg-1 in polystyrene cups (average 25.1 µg kg-1) and 0.9 to 45.7 µg kg-1 in polypropylene cups (average 10.8 µg kg-1). Texanol's® origin from the printed plastic cups was indicated by their separate HRGC-MS analysis, revealing amounts in the higher ppb range. In addition, the presence of two pairs of enantiomers both found to be racemic by enantio¬selective multidimensional gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (enantio-MDGC-MS) excluded its origin from nature. According to European legislation 23 and 14% of polystyrene and polypropylene packed samples, respectively, exceeded the threshold of <10 µg kg-1. As shown from the non-contaminated samples under study, adequate technology is available to avoid this undesirable contamination of polystyrene and polypropylene packed foods. The detection of overall procedure (DLOP) and the reliable quantitation limit (RQL) were 0.2 µg kg-1 and 0.9 µg kg-1, respectively.

Mots clés: Life Sciences

Michael Kempf, Peter Schreier. Occurrence of 2,2,4-trimethyl-1,3-pentanediol monoisobutyrate (Texanol®) in foods packed in polystyrene and polypropylene cups. Food Additives and Contaminants, 2009, 26 (04), pp.563-567. ⟨10.1080/02652030802562920⟩. ⟨hal-00577349⟩