Study of the effect of the presence of silver nanoparticles on migration of bisphenol A from polycarbonate glasses into food simulants

The impact that the presence of nanoparticles in food can have on the migration from food contact materials (FCMs) of substances, which occurrence in foodstuffs is regulated, is posed in this paper through a case-study. Migration of bisphenol A (BPA) from polycarbonate glasses into aqueous food simulant B (3% acetic acid, w/v) and simulant D1 (50% ethanol, v/v), both in the absence and presence of silver nanoparticles is tested. The analysis of the amount of BPA released into the food simulants is conducted by comparing population results instead of using the classical location and scatter estimates. β-content tolerance intervals are used to model the statistical distribution of BPA migrated from the polycarbonate glasses. Experimental measurements are performed by HPLC-FLD, and partial least squares regression models are then fitted to determine the concentration of BPA. The analytical procedure fulfils the trueness property. The capability of detection of the method is between 1.7 and 2.3 μg L−1 when the probabilities of false positive and false negative are fixed at 0.05. Using β-content tolerance intervals, in 90% of the specimens of a population of polycarbonate glasses, the amount of BPA migrated into simulant B in the presence of AgNPs is 13.34 μg L−1, at least twice the quantity that migrated in the absence of them.