Determination of 29 Primary Aromatic Amines in Colorants from Food Contact Materials by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry

A method for determination of 29 primary aromatic amines (PAAs) in colorants from food contact materials by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was proposed. 0.250 0 g of the sample was taken and placed in a 50 mL-centrifugal tube, and 25 mL of ethyl acetate was added. The mixture was shaken and ultrasonic extracted for 30 min at room temperature, and then centrifuged for 15 min. The upper solution was separated on DB-35MS column according to the column heating program. Selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode was adopted in mass spectrometry analysis. As shown by the results, linear relationships between the corresponding quantitative ion peak areas and mass concentrations of 29 PAAs were found in the range of 0.03-1.00 mg · L⁻¹, with the same detection limits (3S/N) of 1.00 mg · kg⁻¹. Test for recovery was made by the standard addition method, giving results in the range of 90.7%-110%, with RSDs (n=7) of the determined values less than 1.0%. This method was used to determine PAAs in 25 batches of food contact material colorant samples, and o-toluidine in one batch was detected, with the detection amount of 29.80 mg · kg⁻¹.