A Research Note Occurrence of Phthalate Esters in Italian Packaged Foods.

Two hundred samples of Italian plastic-packaged food products were examined for the presence and concentration of phthalic plasticizers. Di-n-butylphthalate (DBP) was detected in 97, 80, 95, 100 and 49% of cheese, salted meat, vegetable soup, potato chips and milk samples, respectively. No DBP was recovered from jams and baby food. The mean levels of contamination with DBP varied from 0.07 to 2.80 μg/g. Di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) was determined in 80, 71, 94 and 52% of salted meat, jam, baby food and milk samples, respectively, and in all the cheese and vegetable soup samples. The mean DEHP values ranged between 0.21 and 2.38 μg/g.