Confidence Framework for Suspect and NIAS Identification in Food Analysis

LCGC International spoke to Marinella Vitulli—founder of Food Contact Center and Food Contact Services—about her work and her presentation at the recent ASMS conference titled, "Untargeted HRMS Screening of Emerging Contaminants in Food Contact Materials: PFAS, Bisphenols, and NIAS”.¹ The talk detailed a suspect and non-target HRMS screening workflow built around proprietary spectral libraries for food contact material (FCM) safety assessment.

In this interview clip, Vitulli discusses:

• What identification confidence framework do you use for suspects and NIAS?

She explains that targeted testing for FCMs is always paired with untargeted screening, since regulated target lists alone cannot account for non-intentionally added substances (NIAS) — the reaction by-products, oligomers, and degradation products that inevitably accompany polymeric packaging. Results are compiled into dedicated GC and LC "Annex" reports documenting, compound by compound, the detection and identification strategy applied across both gas and liquid chromatography mass spectrometry data.

To standardize how confidently a compound can be called identified, her team applies the confidence-level framework built around published guidance,² developed within the ILSI Europe food packaging community—covering identification thresholds and the internal standards used to anchor them. That consistency matters, Vitulli says, because customers frequently struggle to distinguish extractables from leachables: whether a compound was recovered under exaggerated solvent extraction conditions or genuinely migrated into a food simulant under real-use conditions.

Semi-quantitative results for suspects and NIAS are then ranked against applicable legislative migration limits where they exist, or against Cramer classification³ thresholds of toxicological concern where no specific limit is defined. Confidence improves further when a reference standard for a structurally similar compound is available, allowing a closer analogue-based comparison rather than a generic response-factor estimate.

References

1. Vitulli, M. Cozzolino, F.; Pratesi, F. Untargeted HRMS Screening of Emerging Contaminants in Food Contact Materials: PFAS, Bisphenols, and NIAS. Presented at ASMS 2026, in San Diego, California, USA. https://asms.org/docs/default-source/conference/74th-asms-final-program_as-of-may-8-2026.pdf?sfvrsn=1234fc3_0 (accessed 2026-08-06).
2. Nerín, C., Bourdoux, S., Faust, B., et al. Guidance in Selecting Analytical Techniques for Identification and Quantification of Non-Intentionally Added Substances (NIAS) in Food Contact Materials (FCMs). Food Additives & Contaminants: Part A 2022, 39(4), 620–643. DOI: 10.1080/19440049.2021.2012599
3. Cramer, G.M., Ford, R.A., Hall, R.L. Estimation of Toxic Hazard — A Decision Tree Approach. Food and Cosmetics Toxicology 1978, 16(3), 255–276.