Determination of acrylonitrile monomer in food packaging materials and in foods

An automated headspace gas chromatographic method is described using nitrogen specific detection for the quantification of acrylonitrile monomer (AN) in acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) food packaging tubs and in the contained foods. For a limited number of retail foods, levels of AN in ABS tubs (ranging from 2 to 10 mg/kg) and their contents (soft margarine, butter and shortening) are reported (ranging from 0.01 to 0.05 mg/kg), the results being confirmed by mass spectrometry (low and medium resolution selected ion monitoring). The latter technique was also used to quantify the levels of AN in the coatings of retail packaging films on a range of substrates, which were found to be between <0.001 and 0.02 mg/m².