From extraction to detection: An analytical journey of plastic additives and their migrations

Plastic materials, which are massively produced for a large variety of applications, require small organic molecules called additives to improve their physico-chemical properties. Plastic additives set health and environment issues, because they can migrate from the plastic material to contact matrices, which is a significant concern for food packaging, medical devices, toys, environmental compartments etc. Here we describe the different families of plastic additives, which come with different chemical structures and polarities, and the way they migrate from plastic material to contact matrices. Then the extraction and analysis methods to determine plastic additives in materials and contact matrices are detailed. Many examples are presented to explain the particularities of extraction and analysis methods, comprising spectroscopic, chromatographic and thermal analyses. Comparison tables are provided to guide researchers looking for extraction or analysis methods, depending on the type of matrices examined. Finally, the areas where further research is necessary are detailed. • Plastic additives are a growing health and environmental concern. • Methods to extract them from plastic material or contact matrices. • Methods to analyse them include spectroscopic, chromatographic and thermal methods.