Research progress on sample pretreatment methods for migrating substances from food contact materials

Excessive absorption of migrating substances from food contact materials can affect human health. Thus, it is essential to analyze the migration of contaminant from food contact materials. However, comprehensive analysis has been challenged by low concentration of migrating substances, manifold and complex matrix interference of food contact materials. Therefore, appropriate sample pretreatment methods should be applied before instrumental detection, which is essential to improve the analytical efficiency, sensitivity, and reliability. This paper systematically reviews the development of sample pretreatment methods for analysis of migrating substances from food contact materials in the past decade. To extract volatile and semi-volatile substances, headspace extraction, headspace solid phase microextraction, and purge and trap technique are discussed. For non-volatile substances, solid-liquid extraction and field-assisted extraction are usually used to extract them from food contact materials, while liquid-liquid extraction, solid phase extraction, and their corresponding microextraction techniques play important roles on enrichment process. In addition, new progress in developments of sample pretreatment methods of food contact materials is summarized, covering new devices, specific adsorbents, and sample preparation methods for rapid detection. An outlook of future prospect of sample pretreatment, especially for non-targeted analysis of non-intentionally added substances is briefly discussed.