Inductively coupled plasma orthogonal acceleration time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ICP-oa-TOF-MS) analysis of heavy metal content in Indocalamus tesselatus samples

Indocalamus tesselatus is one of the most popular packing materials in China. Heavy metals in Chinese I. tesselatus samples have received great interest because they are related to health. A simple and fast method for the determination of Pb, Cd, Mn, Ni, Cr, As, Hg, Cu and Zn, by inductively coupled plasma orthogonal acceleration time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ICP-oa-TOF-MS), following microwave closed vessel digestion of samples, was proposed. The method was validated using standard reference material (GBW 07605-Tea). Samples of I. tesselatus from five different regions of China were analysed using the proposed method. Heavy metals contents from different regions were found at different levels. Their low contents of heavy metals showed that collection areas were not polluted and all collected I. tesselatus samples could be unreservedly used as food packing materials without any health risk.