Identification of Unknown Migrants from Food Contact Materials

Materials that come into contact with foodstuffs can transfer components that may cause odour or taint problems or in the worse case cause the foodstuff to be unsafe to eat. The identities of some of these are easily predicted from the chemistry of known components but others are not. In this respect, it is important to be able to identify and quantify these chemicals. This chapter describes the need for methods of identification of unknown chemicals that may migrate. Mass spectrometric analytical methods are described, including headspace-gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (HS-GC-MS), liquid injection gas chromatography with MS, and liquid chromatography with time-of-flight MS (LC-TOF-MS).