Two RP-HPLC Sensitive Methods To Quantify and Identify Bisphenol A Diglycidyl Ether and Its Hydrolysis Products. 1. European Union Aqueous Food Simulants

Two RP-HPLC with fluorescence detection alternative methods have been proposed to quantify and identify bisphenol A diglycidyl ether (BADGE), a monomer of epoxy resins used as a coating for food packaging materials, and its hydrolysis products (HPs) in three aqueous food liquid simulants: 15% (v/v) ethanol, 3% (w/v) acetic acid, and distilled water. Both isocratic and gradient chromatographic methods were developed to determine this monomer at the specific migration limit (SML) level (restriction proposed by European Union legislation) and also the two HPs in aqueous EEC food simulants. All calibration lines had correlation coefficients greater than 0.997 and detection limits of less than 2 μg of BADGE/L. Standard deviations (in percent) obtained in the precision calculation were less than 3% for BADGE. Furthermore, both methods were applied to analyze these compounds in three types of epoxy can coatings that contact food.