2021 FDA Science Forum
Portable Spectroscopy for Screening of Ortho-Phthalate Plasticizers in Production Line Tubing
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Contributing OfficeCenter for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
Abstract
Ortho-phthalates are a class of plasticizers used to alter physical properties such as softness and flexibility in a wide range of materials and may be present in everyday items such as personal care products, packaging, toys, paints, and adhesives. Ortho-phthalates are also used to increase the flexibility of milk extraction and production line tubing, liners, and gaskets. It has been shown that ortho-phthalates are fat-soluble, opening potential for their leaching and dissolution in fatty food products such as milk which has led to further investigations on the use of ortho-phthalates in food contact materials. Portable detection of ortho-phthalates in food contact materials is important as it alleviates the need for high cost and time-consuming laboratory-based testing, while allowing for rapid onsite detection of ortho-phthalates with high ease-of-use for food suppliers and FDA field agents. In this work, commercially available handheld Raman spectrometers are evaluated for their ability to detect ortho-phthalate plasticizers in food production line tubing with the goal of better understanding their prevalence in the dairy industry. Data analysis via both spectral library matching and chemometric modelling is developed for use with the portable Raman spectrometers to determine which process has the highest accuracy and selectivity. In addition, one of the Raman spectrometers has 1064 nm laser excitation which may overcome limitations found in the 785 nm excitation devices. These limitations include incompatibility with opaque and highly fluorescent materials, which may be present in food contact materials. The results from the spectrometers investigated in this work show that the technologies hold potential as a valuable screening tool for FDA and for the food industry to monitor and control the use of ortho-phthalate containing polyvinyl chloride (PVC) food contact materials.
