Evaluating migration from food packaging materials

4 Evaluating migration from food packaging materials 

The first step in evaluating the exposure and safety of food packaging materials is to understand the mechanism by which components of food packaging enter the food and the amount of these components in the food. Historically the major detailed studies on the migration from food packaging materials started in the 1970s. 

x is the mass that migrates at infinite time. It is clear from this figure that over most values Dt/L2, and for typical values of a found in food packaging, the solutions are equivalent. 

In many practical cases M[ oa can be considered the total amount of solute in the polymer at t=0. That is, it is essentially possible for all of a solute to migrate out of a polymer. This was tested and demonstrated by Chang et al. (1982) and is illustrated in Figs. 11-2 and 11-3. Here essentially 100% of BHT and n-octadecane is shown to migrate from LDPE at 30 °C and HDPE at 60 °C. Because essentially all the solute 

Most of the detailed systematic migration studies performed before 1990 were at low temperatures, i.e., less than 60 °C. In 1990, migration of antioxidants from polyolefins (the most common food packaging material) to the food simulants com oil, 95 % ethanol, water, 8 % ethanol and food was studied at high temperatures in the range 

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Jickells and co-workers (2004) also evaluated MPPO in terms of migration testing. They concluded that MPPO can be used as a test medium to assess transfer from secondary packaging materials. They proposed a test condition of 6 h at 60 °C but suggested that further studies should be carried out to determine whether the proposed test condition is appropriate for a wider range of food/packaging combinations than those that were tested in their study. 

Castle L, Damant AP, Honeybone CA et al (1997) Migration studies from paper and board food packaging materials. Part 2. Survey for residues of dialkylamino benzophenone UV-cure ink photoinitiators. Food Addit Contam 14(l) 45-52 Choe SY, Kim SJ, Kim HG et al (2003) Evaluation of estrogenicity of major heavy metals. Sci Total Environ 312(1-3) 15-21... 

Isotope dilution GC-MS (IDGC-MS) procedures have been used for the evaluation of the migration of plasticisers from packaging materials (PE, PVC, cellulose and vinylidene chloride films) into foods [77-79]. Acetyltributyl citrate (ATBC) migration from Saran (vinylidene chloride-ct>-vinyl chloride) has been measured by means of IR spectroscopy, extraction/saponification [80] and stable isotope dilution GC-MS using [ Hs] ATBC [79]. 

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