Migration from materials and articles in contact with food

6 Migration from materials and articles in contact with food 

Early work on phthalate esters (section 1.2) and several monomers such as styrene, which are used to make plastics, demonstrated that chemical migration can occur from packaging into food. There has been a huge amount of practical work on this over the last thirty years (Gilbert, 1997), much of it on plastics. Thus there are now in place detailed controls on this aspect of plastics in the European Union (EU) and the USA. The controls in the EU have been fully implemented in Great Britain (FCM Unit, 2000). 

Research on chemical migration from other types or components of packaging material - e.g. glass, wood, cork, coatings, adhesives - has been carried out sporadically. There is now a concerted UK programme to study chemical migration from these so that problems can be identified and dealt with in a consistent way (Working Party on Chemical Contaminants from Food Contact Materials and Articles, 1999). 

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