Identification and semi-quantitative determination of a migration contaminant from beverage carton packages into mineral water by on-line solid phaseextraction gas chromatography mass spectrometry (SPE-GC-MS)

An unknown migration contaminant was found in a number of mineral water sam ples contained in beverage carton packages. This compound was isolated by a fully automatic solid phase extraction system and identified by means of G C-MS as 2,4,7,9-tetramethyl-5-decyne-4,7-diol (TMDD) [126-86-3], which is u sed as a surfactant in water-based printing inks and migrates during the pr oduction of the beverage carton material into the inner polyethylene film a nd subsequently into the product. The determined concentrations of TMDD ran ged up to more than 50 mu g L-1.