Funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.3, Theme 10.
Funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.3, Theme 10.
Targeted and untargeted approaches for the determination of both inten...
Highlights
New/existing materials will be characterised in terms of migration studies of both intentionally and non-intentionally added substances, small-/micro/nano- plastics, metal nanoparticles, food packaging suitability and growth of mycotoxigenic moulds, even after being subjected to innovative/emerging processing technologies (e.g., cold gas plasma, HPP). Potential antimicrobial properties will also be assessed, particularly for developed functional packaging systems. The safety of new materials used as FCM, from recyclable sources, bioplastics or derived from by-products, will be assessed in collaboration with Spoke 2
Report on safety / stability functionality of new/existing food packaging materials/systems (M30)
Report on added substances, small nano-plastics, metal nanoparticles (M30)
The safety of existing/new food contact materials (FCM) is an issue of major concern since many harmful compounds resulting from manufacturing processes, recycling technologies or material aging can migrate into food, raising health concerns. Mass spectrometry (MS)-based techniques can be applied for the determination of both intentionally and non-intentionally added substances both from extracts and directly from the packaging material, being high resolution-MS (HRMS) the most powerful tool for the unambiguous determination of the investigated analytes. Untargeted strategies play a key role in the assessment of food safety being able to provide a comprehensive fingerprinting of FCM. Ambient HRMS provides the direct molecular characterization of FCM with minimal sample preparation, whereas MS imaging approaches enable mapping of the spatial distribution of components on sample surfaces, leading to a better understanding of the localization of packaging components for an improved product safety.
