Atmospheric pressure gas chromatography coupled to quadrupole-time of flight mass spectrometry as a tool for identification of volatile migrants from autoadhesive labels used for direct food contact.

Pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSA) are used to manufacture labels that are applied directly on the food. These adhesives could contain not only intentionally added compounds (IAS) to the adhesive formula but also non-intentionally added substances (NIAS), due to the impurities from the raw materials used, decomposition of the initial components or from chemical interactions between them. These compounds could migrate to the food and contaminate it. In this study, gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS/Q) and atmospheric pressure gas chromatography coupled to a quadrupole hyphenated to a time of flight mass spectrometer (APGC-MS/Q-TOF) have been used for identification of unknown compounds and NIAS coming from a PSA. Seven compounds were identified by GC-MS/Q, and other eight compounds remained initially unknown. The structure of these eight new compounds was elucidated by working with the spectra obtained by APGC-MS/Q-TOF. Finally, two different migration studies were carried out. The first one with Tenax as solid food simulant in contact with the paper label containing the adhesive and the second one with isooctane filled in a natural pork intestine where the label containing the adhesive was applied on the external side. The results are shown and discussed.