Rapid determination of formaldehyde migrated from melamine tableware by headspace gas chromatography

A headspace gas chromatographic method was developed for the determination of formaldehyde migrated from melamine products. After the immersion of samples in water,3% acetic acid,50% ethanol and olive oil as the food simulants,formaldehyde in four food simulants was extracted by headspace technology and analyzed by gas chromatograph,then separated with a HP-INNOWAX capillary column and detected by FID.Retention times of the peaks were used for qualitative analysis,while the external standard methods was used for quantitative analysis. The average recoveries( n = 6) were 88. 3% ~ 97. 6% with the relative standard deviations of 2. 3% ~ 4. 1% in four food simulants and the limits of detection were 0. 8,0. 8,2. 0 and 0. 8 mg /L in water,3% acetic acid,50% ethanol and olive oil,respectively. This method is simple,rapid,and repeatable,which is applicable to the determination of formaldehyde migrated from melamine products. Moreover,the effect of different immersion simulants on the formaldehyde migration under the same immersion conditions were studied by headspace-GC,and results showed the amount of migrated formaldehyde to 3% acetic acid was the largest.