Ion mobility quadrupole time-of-flight high resolution mass spectrometry coupled to ultra-high pressure liquid chromatography for identification of non-intentionally added substances migrating from food cans.

Sealants, incorporated in the lids of food cans to ensure the can is hermetically sealed, are formulated from a wide variety of compounds. These compounds and associated non-intentionally added substances (NIAS) could migrate to the food contained in the can. In this work, ion mobility quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry coupled to ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC-IM-QTOF-MS) has been used to obtain ion mobility filtered extracted ion chromatograms. Subsequently, accurate mass precursor ions and their fragments have been used to identify the compounds migrating from the sealant to the content of the cans. Moreover, the correlation between the collision cross-section (CCS) values and m/z of the compounds was used to increase the level of confidence of the identification. Seven compounds were found to have migrated to the food simulants. The compounds bis(2-hydroxy-3-tert-butyl-5-methylphenyl)dicyclopentane,1-tetradecanesulfonic acid, 1-pentadecanesulfonic acid, 1-hexadecanesulfonic acid and naphthalene-2-sulfonic acid (whose migration was over the specific migration limit established by the European Regulation 10/2011/EU) were identified as NIAS in the food simulants studied.