Authors: Sturaro, Alberto¹; Rella, Rocco¹; Parvoli, Giorgio¹; Ferrara, Daniela¹; Tisato, Francesco²

Source: Food Additives and Contaminants, Volume 23, Number 4, April 2006 , pp. 431-436(6)

Publisher: Taylor and Francis Ltd

Abstract:

Contamination of foods with trimethyldiphenylmethanes is reported and the origin is shown to be migration from food packaging materials of which the use of recycled carbonless copy paper was found to be the major source. This chemical is one of the solvents used in the carbonless copy paper and its presence in food and the environment has not been previously identified. In this paper we have pursued previous studies on diisopropylnaphthalenes and hydrogenated terphenyls contamination from packaging and now report the identification of this new food contaminant and present evidence of its source. Solid foods such as egg pasta, barley coffee and rice were analysed by GC/MS and a mean concentration of 18?µg/kg of trimethyldiphenylmethanes was found. Extracts from carbonless copy paper were analysed by proton NMR to characterize the trimethyldiphenylmethanes. Since trimethyldiphenylmethanes are found in solid food together with diisopropylnaphthalenes, and considering their similar chemical character, they may follow the same migration pathway as one another.

Keywords: Food contamination; organic contaminant; gas chromatography-mass spectrometry; NMR; trimethyldiphenylmethanes; carbonless copy paper

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02652030500526052

Affiliations: 1: Istituto per la Dinamica dei Processi Ambientali – Unità di Padova, C.N.R. 2: Istituto di Chimica Inorganica e delle Superfici, C.N.R., Padova, Italy

Publication date: 2006-04-01

More about this publication?

• Editorial Board
• Information for Authors
• Subscribe to this Title
• ingentaconnect is not responsible for the content or availability of external websites

Related content

• In this: publication
• By this: publisher
• In this Subject: Nutrition & Food
• By this author: Sturaro, Alberto ;  Rella, Rocco ;  Parvoli, Giorgio ;  Ferrara, Daniela ;  Tisato, Francesco

Website © Publishing Technology. Article copyright remains with the publisher, society or author(s) as specified within the article.

• Terms and conditions
• Privacy policy
• Information for advertisers