A CONVENIENT GROUP METHOD FOR THE GAS-CHR OMATOGRAPHIC DETERMINATION OF ALIPHATIC DIAMINES IN THE 4 OFFICIAL EC FOOD SIMULANTS

EC Directive 90/128/EEC prescribes for the aliphatic diamines ethylene diamine and hexamethylenediamine specific migration limits (SML) of 12 mg/kg and 2,4 mg/kg. On the other hand, there are no generally accept ed methods of analysis available for compliance testing with the given restrictions. Therefore. a simple capillary gas chromatographic metho d with flame ionization detection was developed for the determination of ethylenediamine and hexamethylenediamine in food simulants. The met hod is based on a two-phase derivatization procedure with ethyl chloro formate using 1,3-diaminopropane as internal standard. The linearity a nd reproducibility of calibration curves for both diamines in all four food simulants were excellent. The overall recovery rates were very s atisfactory. The detection limits for both diamines were much lower th an the corresponding SML-values. The method which is considered to be also applicable to other aliphatic diamines is presented to EC commiss ion and to CEN TC 194/SC 1 for getting approval as an official standar d CEN method for specific migration determination of the restricted di amines.