Determination of acrylonitrile in materials in contact with foodstuffs.

Monitoring of the content of free acrylonitrile in plastics used for the preparation of viands is necessary due to its negative effect on human health. A content of 20 ppb is the maximal value of free acrylonitrile in such samples. In this case, head-space gas chromatography is most favourable analytical method when combined with the standard addition method together with a mass-spectrometry detector because of a very low concentration of the analyte. In samples taken for analysis, the content of free acrylonitrile was found to be within 5.1 and 10.3 ppb (microg/kg).