Multiple headspace-solid phase microextraction for the determination of migrants coming from a self-stick label in fresh sausage

• MHS-SPME has been optimized to quantify migrants found in fresh sausage.
• All the compounds could be analyzed by this technique with good correlation coefficients.
• Migration assays from a label to fresh sausage has been carried out.
• MHS-SPME has demonstrated to be a solvent free, sensitive and reproducible methodology for this analysis.
• Migration of the compounds from the label does not endanger human health.

Most fresh sausages are sold with a self-stick adhesive label stuck directly on it. Because of that, the substances in the adhesive could migrate into the fresh sausage. In this work, the multiple headspace-solid-phase microextraction technique has been optimized to quantify the migrants found in the fresh sausage. All the compounds could be analyzed by this technique since its concentration decay exponentially with the number of extractions with good correlation coefficients (0.8258–0.9987). Then, migration assays were carried out and an evaluation of the potential risk for the human health was undertaken with the conclusion that the migration of the compounds from the label does not endanger human health. The results were compared those obtained in migration to casing filled with isooctane used as fat food simulant by Canellas et al. (2014). The values obtained for isooctane (10–600 ng/g) were much higher than the migration values found in the meat stuffed in casing expressed as ng/g of fat content (ranged from 0.02 to 3.3 ng/g of fat content). This finding shows that in some scenarios, it is difficult to simulate the intended contact of materials used in food packaging with simulants.