In this study a sensitive analytical method based on liquid chromatography-electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was developed for the simultaneous analysis of bisphenol A (BPA), bisphenol AF (BPAF), bisphenol B (BPB), bisphenol E (BPE), bisphenol F (BPF) and bisphenol S in different paper and board products, including virgin fibre samples and recycled samples. Analytes were extracted from the paper matrix using a simple solvent extraction and chromatographic separation was performed on a C18 core-shell (100 mm x 2.1 mm i.d.; 1.7 µm particle size) column. The developed method showed good linearity (R2 > 0.9921) for all analytes. Absolute recoveries ranged from 71 to 115% and precision in terms of reproducibility and repeatability (intra- and inter-day) yielded in relative standard deviations (RSDs) of less than 15.0% and 17.4%, respectively. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) for the different analytes ranged from 0.29 to 0.40 µg kg-1 paper and from 1.09 to 1.32 µg kg-1 paper, being in the same range for all analytes. Quantitation of the analytes was performed using the internal standard procedure, with concentrations of < LOQ to 9599 µg kg-1 for the different analytes. Furthermore, a calculation of the maximum migration, assuming the 'worst case' scenario of 100% migration was performed.
Keywords: Bisphenol A (BPA); bisphenol analogues; food packaging; liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS); paper and cardboard.