High-performance thin-layer chromatography analysis of industrial bamboo tableware for genotoxins, melamine and formaldehyde

Bamboo tableware became popular as ecofriendly material. However, industrial tableware products made of bamboo-melamine-formaldehyde resin material are not biodegradable. In addition, harmful compounds were detected if such consumer articles were used with hot drinks or hot food, and risk assessment found that maximum daily dosages of melamine and formaldehyde were exceeded. High-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) methods for analysis of such samples have not been demonstrated so far, despite available HPTLC methods for the mentioned analytes. In this work, the potential and limitation of HPTLC analysis for bamboo-melamine-formaldehyde resin tableware was studied regarding the extractable presence of melamine, formaldehyde and genotoxins. The bamboo tableware was extracted with a food simulant, i.e. aqueous acetic acid simulating hot beverages, and analyzed neutralized and non-neutralized, directly without sample preparation to ensure sample integrity and to avoid loss of sample components. As a result, melamine was not detected in the acidic food simulant. Unfortunately, the existing formaldehyde method was not applicable due to the acidic milieu of the food simulant. The non-target HPTLC-(S9)-SOS-Umu-C bioassay with and without simulated S9 liver enzyme metabolization found no genotoxic substances in 50 mu L food simulant, which volume and thus acidity was the maximum tolerated by the Salmonella cells.

Automated summary

Bamboo-melamine-formaldehyde resin tableware is not biodegradable and contains harmful compounds when used with hot drinks or food. However, there is no established HPTLC method for analyzing these samples. In this study, the extractable presence of melamine, formaldehyde, and genotoxins in bamboo tableware was investigated using HPTLC analysis.