Contamination test of metal and non-metal elements from copper gas pipe to food gases

In the last decade, EC regulations have been issued to minimize any interaction between packaging materials intended to come in contact with foodstuffs and potential contaminants. In this paper, the concentrations of 26 metals and metalloids in a food gas (CO2), possibly related to the migration of elements from copper pipes, which are commonly used during gas storage and distribution, were determined by ICP-AES and ICP-MS. A simple, though efficient, procedure to chemically trap these elements has shown that the copper pipes do not release significant concentrations of metals and metalloids, most of them being below or clustering below or around the instrumental detection limit. According to this study, only Al, Cu, Fe, Ni, and Zn can be related to the copper line. However, when considering the consumption of 3 L of water, at which 12 g/L of CO2 is added, the computed concentrations of metals and metalloids are 3 to 6 orders of magnitude lower than the limit concentrations in mineral waters intended for human consumption (European Directive 98/83/EC). This implies that the amount of contaminants in CO2 introduced in the human body is negligible.