A comprehensive NMR methodology to assess the composition of biobased and biodegradable polymers in contact with food

• A methodological approach by NMR was developed to assess the safety of food contact materials.
• Additives from PLA were rapidly identified by an automatic NMR methodology coupled with dedicated database.
• Quantitative NMR (qNMR) allowed to quantify 12 additives in three types of polylactide.
• qNMR is as sensitive as chromatographic methods to quantify additives in PLA.

A nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methodology was assessed regarding the identification and quantification of additives in three types of polylactide (PLA) intended as food contact materials. Additives were identified using the LNE/NMR database which clusters NMR datasets on more than 130 substances authorized by European Regulation No. 10/2011. Of the 12 additives spiked in the three types of PLA pellets, 10 were rapidly identified by the database and correlated with spectral comparison. The levels of the 12 additives were estimated using quantitative NMR combined with graphical computation. A comparison with chromatographic methods tended to prove the sensitivity of NMR by demonstrating an analytical difference of less than 15%. Our results therefore demonstrated the efficiency of the proposed NMR methodology for rapid assessment of the composition of PLA.

Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide