Abstract: The migration behavior of mineral oil hydrocarbons from 24 kinds of fast food wrapping paper into the solid food simulant Tenax was explored under various conditions (40 ℃/0.5, 1, 2 and 3 h; 40 ℃/10 d; and 70 ℃/2 h), and the factors affecting it were evaluated to evaluate their safety. An n-hexane-ethanol (1:1, V/V) mixed solution was used to extract the mineral oil hydrocarbons in Tenax overnight. Then, the mixed solution was separated and fractionated on silver nitrate solid-phase with mass ratio in 0.3% extraction column into mineral oil saturated hydrocarbons (MOSH) and mineral oil aromatic hydrocarbons (MOAH), which were quantified and qualified by gas chromatography-flame ionization detection (GC-FID) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, respectively. The results showed that the amount of migrated mineral oil hydrocarbons increased as temperature increased. The migration of MOSH from the waxed paper samples was detected at levels of 110.49-615.40 mg/kg, while the migration of MOAH was not detected in any of the samples, indicating that the paraffin layer coated on the waxed paper surface contained MOSH but not MOAH. The migration amounts of MOSH and MOAH from online-purchased traymates and common traymates were approximately 10-400 and 10-70 times higher than the specific limit values (0.6 and 0.5 mg/kg), respectively. However, the migration amounts from traymates with virgin fiber with high-quality printing ink did not exceed the limits. Finally, through source analysis of mineral oil in virgin fiber plate paper with printing ink, it was found that part of the migrated mineral oil may come from the ink. Other sources may include recycled fibers, binders, additives and processing aids.

Key words: mineral oil hydrocarbons; fast food wrapping paper; migration of printing ink; solid food simulant