Fast GC-MS/MS Detects PFAS in Food Packaging

A recent study that tracked how PFAS chemicals move through the economy¹ found that roughly 9000 tons of PFAS-based plastics were used each year in U.S. food packaging between 2018 and 2020 (with estimates ranging anywhere from 1100 to 25,000 tons), plus another 940 tons or so per year in Canada. In addition, at least 11 tons of non-plastic PFAS chemicals were added to food packaging every year. Since only about 2% of packaging had PFAS intentionally added to it, researchers estimated that around 6100 tons per year in the U.S. and 700 tons per year in Canada ultimately ended up thrown away in landfills or sent to composting facilities. Given just how much food packaging waste there is overall, this means a lot of PFAS could be leaking out into the environment through trash disposal alone.

To help address this, researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture developed a new laboratory method for detecting 37 specific PFAS chemicals that easily evaporate or partially evaporate. The method uses a fast version of gas chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). The chemicals they were looking for included several different types of PFAS, such as fluorotelomer alcohols, fluorotelomer acrylates and methacrylates, and various sulfonamide-related PFAS compounds. A paper based on their efforts was published in the Journal of Chromatography A.²

What Are PFAS, and How Many Different Ones Exist?

PFAS are a large family of man-made chemicals containing fluorine that have been produced and used in various products for decades.³ Depending on how you define what counts as a PFAS,⁴ the total number can range anywhere from a few thousand to millions of different chemicals, since they come in so many different structures and forms. As one example, a chemical database maintained by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency listed just over 21,000 different PFAS as of January 2026.⁵

How Did the New Method Perform, and What Did It Find in Real Food Packaging Samples?

The research team tested two different column types for detecting these evaporation-prone PFAS chemicals under special low-pressure conditions, which let them complete each test in just 8 minutes. They ran the method multiple times, on different days, to make sure it was both accurate and consistent. They also tested it on real food packaging, both paper-based and plastic, spiking samples with known amounts of the 37 target chemicals to see how well the method could detect them.²

To prepare the samples, they used a two-step extraction process with four different solvents (hexane, isopropyl alcohol, methanol, and acetonitrile), which together helped capture as many different PFAS types as possible and get the most accurate results. The method performed well and met the official accuracy standards set for testing PFAS in food packaging,⁶ working reliably for nearly all the chemicals tested in both paper and plastic samples.²

Finally, the researchers tested how well the method worked on real-world samples by analyzing 36 food packaging products collected in 2021, 2024, and 2026. Interestingly, one specific PFAS chemical, called 6:2 fluorotelomer alcohol, showed up in some of the 2021 samples (in amounts ranging from none detected up to 811 nanograms per gram), but wasn't found at all in any of the more recent 2024 or 2026 samples.²

“The validated method,” write the authors of the paper,² “provides a rapid approach for quantifying PFAS precursors, supporting improved assessment of precursor sources, transformation pathways, and potential contributions to total PFAS exposure.”

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References

1. Minet, L.; Wang, Z.; Shalin, A. et al. Use and Release of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs) in Consumer Food Packaging in U.S. and Canada. Environ Sci Process Impacts. 2022, 24 (11), 2032-2042. DOI: 10.1039/d2em00166g
2. Sapozhnikova, Y.; Antle, J. Method Development and Validation for Neutral PFAS in Food Packaging Using Fast Low Pressure Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry. J. Chromatogr. A 2026, 1785, 467242. DOI: 10.1016/j.chroma.2026.467242
3. Messmer, M. F.; Siegel, L.; Locwin, B. Global Manufacturer Concealed Hazards of PFAS Releases for Decades. Curr. Opin. Green Sustain. Chem.2024, 47, 100901. DOI: 10.1016/j.cogsc.2024.100901
4. Schymanski, E. L.; Zhang, J.; Thiessen, P. A. et al. Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in PubChem: 7 Million and Growing. Environ Sci Technol. 2023, 57 (44), 16918-16928. DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c04855
5. CompTox Dashboard PFAS Chemical List. U. S. Environmental Protection Agency website. 2008. https://comptox.epa.gov/dashboard/chemical-lists/PFASSTRUCT(accessed 2026-05-18)
6. Standard Method Performance Requirements (SMPRs) for Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Food Packaging Materials. AOAC (Association of Official Agricultural Chemists) website. 2026. https://www.aoac.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/SMPR-2025_001.pdf (accessed 2026-05-21)