Occurrence of per- and polyfluorinated compounds in paper and board packaging materials and migration to food simulants and foodstuffs

This work describes the screening of twenty three per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in twenty five paper and board (P/B) packaging materials and their migration to several food simulants (50% ethanol, 95% ethanol and Tenax (R)) at different conditions of time and temperature. A different migration pattern depending on the carbon chain length was observed; while short carbon chain PFASs tend to migrate more to 50% ethanol than to 95% ethanol, long chain PFASs showed the opposite trend. On the other hand, very low migration percentages of all PFASs to Tenax (R) were found. Finally, migration of 9 PFASs into real foods (cereals, rice and infant milk powder) for 6 months was quantified and compared with the results obtained with the simulants. As a result, significant underestimations of the PFASs migration to foodstuffs were obtained using Tenax (R), especially for short carbon chain PFASs and milk powder.