Fast Food and Snack Testing

Ghiasvand, Ali Reza, and Somayeh Hajipour. Talanta 146 (2016): 417-422.

Acrylamide is a potential toxic carcinogen found in many highly consumed foods. Recently, it has been classified as "reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen" by the National Toxicology Program (NTP). Therefore, there is strong interest in simple and cost-effective methods for the determination of acrylamide in food.

This study introduces, for the first time, a rapid, straightforward, and low-cost method for the sensitive and accurate determination of acrylamide in food. The method directly captures acrylamide in the upper atmosphere of the sample using headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME), followed by analysis with a gas chromatography-flame ionization detection (GC-FID) system. A linear calibration curve was obtained in the range of 0.77–50 µg/g, with a regression coefficient of 0.998. The limits of detection and quantification were 0.22 and 0.77 µg/g, respectively. Recovery rates for various food samples ranged from 79.6% to 95.7%. The repeatability of the measurements, expressed as relative standard deviation (RSD), was 4.1–8.0% (n=9). The proposed HS-SPME-GC-FID method has been successfully applied to quantify trace amounts of acrylamide in certain processed foods, including potato chips and French fries.

Han, Q., Sun, Y., Shen, K., Yan, Y., & Kang, X. (2021). Food chemistry, 347, 129026.

A simple analytical method for the determination of seven synthetic dyes has been successfully developed based on filled fiber solid-phase extraction and HPLC-DAD.

Polystyrene/polypyrrole (PS/PPy) fibers were obtained through electrospinning polystyrene nanofibers, which were then oxidized with FeCl₃ to initiate the polymerization of pyrrole and deposit a polypyrrole coating on the PS fiber framework. The relationship between the extraction performance of the fibers at different humidity levels and the electrospinning process was studied based on morphological investigations and BET surface area analysis.

During the extraction process, purification, concentration, and desorption can be completed in a single step. The established method exhibited good sensitivity, selectivity, reproducibility, and efficiency for synthetic dyes in snack food samples, including dried fruits, flavored yogurt, and fruit candies. Under optimal conditions, the limits of detection (S/N = 3) ranged from 2.4 to 21.09 ng/mL, with acceptable linearity in both liquid and solid matrices. Recovery rates were found to be between 93.9% and 103.9%.

Dueñas-Mas, María Jesús, Ana Ballesteros-Gómez, and Jacob de Boer. Chemosphere 339 (2023): 139734.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a large class of toxic compounds widely used in industrial and consumer products, from which they can migrate into the environment. They may pose a threat to human health as they are associated with various diseases. To obtain more information about the risks of PFAS in fast food packaging materials, several PFAS were quantified in food contact materials (FCM) from fast food restaurants in France. This includes perfluoro carboxylic acids (PFCA, n = 16), perfluoro sulfonic acids (PFSA, n = 14), and a miscellaneous group composed of sulfonamides (n = 5) and fluorinated alkyl phosphate esters (PAP, n = 5).

Quantification of PFAS by LC-MS/MS

PFAS were quantified using LC-MS/MS. The mobile phase for PAP separation consisted of a 2 mM ammonium acetate (A) and 100% methanol (B) solution, with a flow rate of 0.3 mL/min. The gradient was as follows: starting at 95% A for 0.5 minutes, decreasing to 50% A at 2 minutes, dropping to 1% A at 10 minutes, maintaining 1% A for 8 minutes, and finally re-equilibrating for 5 minutes. For the separation of other analytes, the mobile phase comprised a 2 mM ammonium acetate (A) and a methanol:ACN (1:1, v/v) (B) solution, with a flow rate of 0.45 mL/min. The gradient started at 90% A for 0.2 minutes, decreased to 40% A at 6 minutes, dropped to 5% A at 10 minutes, maintained 1% A for 8 minutes, and then re-equilibrated for 5 minutes. Perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA), 6:2 fluorotelomer sulfonic acid (6:2 FTS), and 6:2/6:2 fluorotelomer phosphate diester (6:2/6:2 diPAP) were detected in all samples.