Enhanced quality control of recycled paperboard for food packaging

A method is reported for the industrial quality control of recycled paperboard for food contact applications. Benzophenones, phthalates, and diisopropyl naphthalene were selected as contamination markers. These compounds are commonly found in recycled paperboard packaging and are known to migrate even into dry nonfatty foods. The method was used to analyze commercial recycled board and involved sample pretreatment by accelerated solvent extraction, evaporation, and purification of the extract, and analysis by gas chromatography mass spectrometry. The accelerated solvent extraction yields were compared with those obtained by Soxhlet extraction and extraction by immersion, and the recoveries of optimized procedures were estimated. The optimized method showed good repeatability, intermediate precision, and sensitivity. Because of the simplicity and partial automation, this method has potential application for the characterization of recycled paperboard.