Migration from contact materials importance

The compatibility of the plasticizer in the PLA matrix, the morphological stability of the plasticized material and the prevention of the plasticizer migration from the material bulk should be optimized as leaching out of additives from materials could impact the media in contact. This is of particular importance where food packaging applications are concerned, because food safety has to be ensured and contamination risks should be minimized. As with all substances intentionally added to the packaging polymer, the choice of plasticizer must comply with the European Commission regulation EU 10/2011 on plastic materials intended to come into... 

Identification and eventual determination of polymer additives is an important issue in many fields, mainly in the area of packaging materials where additive migration from food contact materials may have potential toxic effects in humans.In biomedical applications, plasticizers present in the polymer [e.g., Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) in PVC] will readily leach into the liquids passing through it, particularly for lipid-containing fluids, e.g., blood. There is a great concern about the toxicity of DEHP, especially for risk groups such as... 

In this chapter, the main analytical techniques and the methods currently employed in industrial and research laboratories for the analysis of important classes of additives are reviewed. The use of both gas chromatographic and liquid chromatographic methods coupled with mass spectrometry features prominently. Such methodology enables the sensitive and specific detection of many types of organic additives in polymeric materials to parts per billion (jig/kg) levels. Much of the development of these methods has been undertaken as part of research into the migration or extraction of species from food-contact and medical materials [5-7], This chapter also includes some discussion on the analysis of residual monomers and solvents. 

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