Abstract
In Europe, semicarbazide (SEM) was detected from bottled baby foods. SEM is a thermal degradation product of azodicarbonamide which is a foaming agent for plastic gaskets on metal lids. In this paper, a determination method of SEM by the incremental standard addition technique was established. And SEM in 64 of bottled foods marketed in Japan were surveyed. In the bottled baby food, SEM was detected 5.7-46.7 μg/g in 9 samples, and not detected in 2 samples. This contamination level is almost the same as that of the investigation in EU. In the general bottled food, SEM was detected 0.6-45.2 μg/g in 23 samples, and not detected in 30 samples. This level was slightly higher compared with that of EU. In all the bottled foods containing SEM, SEM or hydrazodicarbonamide was detected also from their sealing gasket. These results indicate that SEM detected from bottled food is degradation product of ADC added to the sealing gasket.
