Development of an Extraction Method Using Mixture Design for the Evaluation of Migration of Non-target Compounds and Dibutyl Phthalate from Baby Bottles

Abstract

This work introduces a simple and rapid method for the extraction of baby bottle migrants from milk simulants employing a mixture of ethyl acetate:dichloromethane:hexane (27.5:22.5:50), using a simplex centroid design for optimization. Initially, the baby bottle materials were identified by FTIR followed by migration test using 50% EtOH in water at 70 °C/2 h. Next, extraction and identification of migrants were performed by GC-MS. Furthermore, the additives in the baby bottle materials were quantified by HPLC-DAD. On the account of the toxicological potential of dibutyl phthalate, the optimized mixture was used for in-house validation by GCMS of the proposed method. Dibutyl phthalate (DBP) migration was detected in three baby bottles with a concentration range of 175 to 235 μg kg−1, which is lower than the specific migration limit determined by the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency. However, exposure to DBP from baby bottles was estimated, and this was higher than the tolerable daily intake recommended by the European Food Safety Authority, indicating a potential public health concern.