Non-targeted Analysis of Extractables and Risk Assessment of Migrants from Food Storage Bags

Abstract

As bio-based and biodegradable polymers are increasingly considered as alternatives to petroleum-based plastics in food contact materials, evaluating their chemical safety under food contact conditions is critical. This study investigated food storage bags made of polypropylene, polyethylene, bio-polyethylene, and poly（lactic acid/poly（butylene adipate terephthalate） （PLA/PBAT） to determine whether compounds selected from the non-targeted analysis （NTA） results migrated at measurable levels and whether the resulting exposure estimates exceeded toxicological reference values. A total of 61 compounds were identified by NTA, with plasticizers, polymer building blocks, and antioxidant degradation products being the major categories. PLA/PBAT showed the highest number of identified compounds across several categories, particularly plasticizers and polymer building blocks. Among the selected compounds, 3-（3,5-di-tert-butyl-4-hydroxyphenyl）propionic acid （DTBPA and acetyl tributyl citrate （ATBC） migrated at quantifiable concentrations, with the highest concentrations observed from PLA/PBAT under the 95% ethanol condition: 666.6 μg/L for DTBPA and 259.7 μg/L for ATBC. In contrast, 2,4-bis（1,1-dimethylethyl）phenol phosphate was detected in methanol extracts from most samples but remained below the LOQ in the migration tests. Although the calculation method based on Commission Regulation （EU） No 10/2011 produced the highest exposure estimates, the maximum estimated daily intake values corresponded to 37% of the threshold of toxicological concern （TTC） for DTBPA and 0.13% of the tolerable daily intake for ATBC. Upper-bound estimates for compounds below the LOQ also remained below their corresponding TTC values. Overall, within the scope of the selected target compounds and test conditions examined in this study, the calculated exposure estimates remained below the applied toxicological reference values. These results show that selected compounds detected by NTA did not uniformly translate into quantifiable migration or exposure estimates exceeding toxicological reference values under the tested conditions.