Overview of Product and Industrial Uses

The objective of this chapter is to provide a comprehensive overview of the use of rubber as a food contact material, from an initial description of the types of rubber and rubber products that are used in the industry, through the formulation of products, and the contact regulations and migration testing regimes, to the research that is on-going to improve its safety and the trends for the future. 

Although many advances in the area of alternative solvents have originated in academia, many alternatives are already in use on an industrial scale. For example, supercritical carbon dioxide is used in coifee decaifeination and natural product extractions, as an alternative solvent in dry-cleaning and as a solvent in continuous flow hydrogenation reactions. An overview of these and some other industrial processes that use alternative solvents will be described in Chapter 10. 

In the family of mineral acids, phosphoric acid is the second most important mineral acid in terms of volume and value. It is only exceeded by sulfuric acid. In a large part it is used for the production of fertilisers and industrial phosphates, for metal surface treatment and for the acidulation of beverages. A quite-well overview on the basic properties of phosphoric acid with an emphasis on the technical processing is given by Schrodter et al. [3]. Besides its use in... 

The ESDs developed by the OECD also include estimates of emissions of additives during use. As for the emissions during compounding and product manufacturing, these emissions are often conservative estimates based on rough models that give an overview of the emissions from the products produced by an entire industry sector. 

We also give a rough overview of the product development status of the various sensors. Some are in use and available in large quantities, while others are still being developed. Their introduction may be imminent, depending on the combined interests of the appliance industry and the consumers. 

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