The use of ion mobility time-of-flight mass spectrometry to assess the migration of polyamide 6 and polyamide 66 oligomers from kitchenware utensils to food.

Abstract Oligomers, are, in general, unknown components of the polymer. These oligomers can migrate from the polymer into the food and become a non-intentionally added substance to the food. In this work, ion mobility time-of-flight mass spectrometry has been used to identify oligomers migrating from kitchenware. The structure elucidation of oligomers from polyamide 6 and polyamide 66 was achieved through the analysis of accurate m/z values of adducts and collision cross section values of precursor ions together with high-energy fragmentation patterns. Additionally, a method to extract oligomers from sunflower oil, cooked beans, soup and whole milk has been developed. Extraction recoveries ranged from 87 to 102 % and limits of detection were from 0.03 to 0.11 mg/kg. It was observed that the migration from kitchenware to real food was below the specified migration limit of 5 mg/kg. However, this limit was exceeded for food simulants, which therefore overestimated the oligomer migration.