Extractability Testing in the European Union

The food simulating extraction liquids recommended by the EU include a range of aqueous and fatty extractants. 

EU Directive 2002/72 EEC [1] and its amendments 2004/19 EC which will be superceded after 2006 by a super directive to cover all aspects of migration testing, for further details, see Chapter 1.6. 

Aqueous extraction liquids discussed in EU Directives include 10% ethanol, 15% ethanol, 3% aqueous acetic acid, 5% aqueous citric acid and 5% aqueous sodium carbonate. 

Oily extractants include olive oil triglycerides (tributyrin, tricaprylin), sunflower oil or a synthetic mixture of triglycerides known as HB307. When use of these extractants is not practical due to problems in chemical analysis, the EU decided in 1996 to accept the use of alternate volatile simulents such as isooctane or 95 % ethanol. Other fatty simulent liquids that have been considered include isopropanol, ethyl acetate and cyclohexane [2]. 

Numerous variants exist in the detail of the extraction test, some of these are covered in Chapter 14 (additive migration). A good starting point when organising an extraction 

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