Interlaboratory Study on Migration Test of Antimony and Germanium for Food-Contact Polyethylene Terephthalate

Abstract

An interlaboratory study was performed to evaluate a migration test method of antimony (Sb) and germanium (Ge), based on the Japanese Food Sanitation Law for food- contact polyethylene terephthalate. Eighteen laboratories participated, and quantified Sb and Ge in three test solutions as blind duplicates using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GF-AAS), inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) or induced coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Statistical analysis revealed that the trueness, repeatability and reproducibility were 98–107%, 1.7–7.5% and 2.0–18.8% by using GF-AAS and ICP-OES. The performance of these methods is sufficient for testing the specifications. The performance parameters of ICP-MS were 99–106%, 0.7–2.2% and 2.2–10.5%, respectively. ICP-MS is available as an alternative measuring method. However, in some laboratories, the quantitative values of Sb were higher than the addition levels. We found that Sb in working solutions is absorbed on glass vessels. Careful control of concentration in working solutions is required for Sb analysis.