Evaluation of heavy metal migration from plastic food packaging materials to aqueous simulants by ICP-MS

Overview

Li, Lee, and Zhan report a Shimadzu application-note experiment measuring 14 elements leached from plastic food-packaging materials into aqueous simulants by ICP-MS. The evidence is C-tier because it is a vendor application note rather than a peer-reviewed paper, but it contains routeable food-contact-material leachate values for PS and PP containers and PE film. The results are migration into simulants, not metal concentrations in food as consumed.

Key numbers

• Source identity: Shimadzu Application News No. AD-0207; PDF metadata creation date 13 November 2019; 5 PDF pages.
• Materials: polystyrene (PS) container, polypropylene (PP) container, and polyethylene (PE) film obtained from local food markets.
• Leaching setup: 0.5 grams of each packaging material immersed in 40 mL of aqueous solution at room temperature. Simulants were DI water (simulant A), 3% acetic acid (simulant B), and 2% nitric acid.
• Analysis setup: after immersion, 1 mL of soaking solution was mixed with 1 mL of 3% acetic acid and diluted to 10 mL; calibration standards were prepared up to 50 ppb for aluminum (Al), arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), Co, Mn, nickel (Ni), and Sb or 200 ppb for Ba, chromium (Cr), Cu, Fe, Li, lead (Pb), and Zn.
• Table 2 method performance: calibration coefficients were r >0.9999 for all targeted elements. LODs were sub-ppb for all analytes, including As 0.005 µg/L, Cd 0.001 µg/L, and Pb 0.123 µg/L.
• Table 3 spike recovery: 10 ppb spikes in simulant B from PS and PP samples gave recovery rates from 87% to 116% across 14 elements, with most triplicate RSDs below 3%.
• Contact-time result: Figure 2 is graphical only in the extracted text; the authors state qualitatively that migration into simulant B increased from 1h to 72h for both PS container and PE film.

Table 4 migration into food simulant B after 72 hours

Values are copied with the source table’s unit label, µg/kg; N.D. is the source notation. The results prose describes the same concentrations as µg/L, so the table/prose unit conflict is flagged in Verification notes.

The text highlights PE film as having Zn 685.5, Fe 142.5, and Al 135.5 among the highest leachate values; for PS and PP containers, the most leached element was Al followed by Zn and Cu. Arsenic and lead were detected across 0.06 - 0.48 and 0.19 - 3.27, respectively, using the source’s prose units; cadmium was detected only from PE film at 0.26.

Table 5 PE film migration into different aqueous solutions

Values are copied as µg/kg.

Methods (brief)

The application note used a Shimadzu ICPMS-2030 with helium collision-cell mode for all elements except Li and Sb. Samples were prepared from plastic packaging pieces leached at room temperature into DI water, 3% acetic acid, or 2% nitric acid; tabled PS/PP/PE comparisons use food simulant B after 72 hours. Calibration used multi-element standards, online internal standards (Sc, Y, Rh, Bi), blank-derived LOD/LOQ estimates, and 10 ppb spike-recovery checks in PS and PP simulant B extracts.

Related evidence

• Plastic tubs
• Flexible pouches/films
• Aluminum
• Arsenic, Total
• Barium
• Cadmium
• Chromium
• Cobalt
• Copper
• Iron
• Lithium
• Manganese
• Nickel
• Lead
• Antimony
• Zinc

Update history

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