Brominated flame retardants (BFRs) in contaminated food contact articles: identification using DART-HRMS and GC-MS

ABSTRACT

Any food contact material (FCM) must be approved by the US FDA as being compliant with Title 21 of the Code of Federal regulations Parts 170–199, and/or obtain a non-objection letter through the Food Contact Notification Process, before being placed into the United States market. In the past years, several scientific articles identified FCM or more specifically, food contact articles (FCAs), which were contaminated with brominated flame retardants (BFRs) in the European Union. Prior research has suggested the source of BFR contamination was likely poorly recycled plastics containing waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). We conducted a retail survey to evaluate the presence of BFR-contaminated reusable FCA in the US market. Using a Direct Analysis in Real Time ionisation High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry (DART-HRMS) screening technique and extraction gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) confirmation we were able to identify BFRs present in retail FCAs. Among non-targeted retail samples, 4 of 49 reusable FCAs contained 1–4 BFRs each. The identified BFRs, found in greatest estimated concentrations, were 2,4,6-tribromophenol (TBP), 3,3ʹ,5,5ʹ-tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), decabromodiphenylethane (DBDPE) and decabromodiphenylether (BDE-209). A second targeted FCA sampling (n = 28) confirmed these BFRs persisted in similar articles. Combined sample sets (n = 77) estimated DART false-positive/negative incidences of 5% & 4%, respectively, for BFR screening of FCAs. Because the presence of BFRs in some contaminated FCAs has been demonstrated and since these compounds are possible migrants into food, further studies are warranted. In order to estimate the potential exposure of the identified BFRs and conduct corresponding risk assessments, the next and logical step will be to study the mass transfer of BFRs from the contaminated FCM into food simulants and food.

KEYWORDS:

• Food contact materials
• brominated flame retardants
• contamination
• DART-HRMS
• GC-MS

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Lili Fox Vélez (CFSAN-ORS), for scientific writing services, and F. Puype from ITC-Zlin (Czech Republic) for kindly sharing characterised BFR contaminated polymers used in method development.

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported in part by an appointment to the Research Participation Program at FDA-CFSAN administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education through an interagency agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy and the USFDA.