Assessing the safety of rubber as a food contact material

5 Assessing the safety of rubber as a food contact material 

Test pieces are cut from the rubber test product to provide a known surface area (cut edges are included in the calculation) and inunersed in an appropriate amount (e.g. 100 ml) of food simulant (either hexane or distilled water). The samples are refluxed for seven hours in pre-cleaned glassware and then removed and placed into fresh simulant and refluxed for a further two hours. The test pieces are then removed and both the seven and two hour test portions evaporated separately to dryness in conditioned crucibles and the 

The three food simulants and the contact conditions for the four different food use categories for which migration testing is required are given in section 12.3. Test pieces of 50 mm x 50 mm to give a total area of 50 cm (both surfaces) are immersed in 100 ml of the appropriate simulant for the intended end use, the test is performed and then the simulant is dried down quantitatively. The BfR limits are shown in Table 12.4. 

These lists are not complete as it is recognised that rubber contains two important ingredients (antidegradants and curatives) that are reactive and so produce reaction and breakdown products. Recent work carried out at Rapra for the Food Standards Agency has shown that there are more than 1000 of these products originating from the 200 curative and antidegradant compounds in the Council of Europe rubber resolution inventory list. 

2 Fingerprinting potential migrants from rubber compounds 

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