Overall migration test in food packaging: Evaluation of alternative internal standards

In the global migration test for plastic packaging intended for fatty foods, glyceryl triheptadecanoate (GTM) is used as the internal standard for the quantification of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) by gas chromatography. In this work, ethyl 3-phenyl propanoate (EFP) and tetradecanoic acid (AM) were evaluated as alternative internal standards. The use of (AM) presented linear behavior (r > 0.99 and %Sb < 5%), good intermediate precision (HORRATr = 0.9), and accuracy (%R = 100.6%). In contrast, the evaluation of (EFP) demonstrated that this is not an adequate internal standard for the quantification of FAMEs. In addition, it was statistically evaluated that there are no significant differences in the calculation of the global migration from FAMEs quantified using GTM or AM as internal standards, but the use of EFP presents significant differences.