Kinetic migration of isothiazolinone biocides from paper packaging to Tenax and Porapak

Abstract

Migration investigations were carried out on paper packaging materials in contact with solid food simulants. The aim was to investigate the migration behaviour of a series of isothiazolinone biocides (2-methyl-3-isothiazolinone (MI), 1,2-benzisothiazolinone (BIT) and 2-octyl-3-isothiazolinone (OIT)) as potential contaminants in paper materials, at varying temperatures and migration times, for the food simulants Tenax and Porapak. Based on the migration results, Tenax was found to be a good food simulant, and was more suitable than Porapak at high temperature. Petri dishes were found to be suitable for use as migration cells when the compounds to be evaluated were non-volatile. The amount of migration gradually increased with time and increasing temperature, finally reaching a steady value. When the temperature was higher than the boiling point of OIT, the migration rate decreased because of volatilization. The maximum migration rates were 3.4% for MI, 2.2% for BIT and 10.6% for OIT at high temperature (≥100°C). Two kinds of paper packaging for food were tested with the method that was developed. OIT in the papers migrated into the food simulants but the amount that migrated was less than 0.14 µg kg⁻¹.

Keywords:

• LC/MS
• packaging paper and board
• packaging additives
• packaging – food simulants
• packing migration

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by China's General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) (Grant Nos 2010IK160 and 2009IK289).