Secondary packaging migration from

Chemical migration from secondary packaging into foods 395... 

A similar reduction in transfer was seen for chilled and frozen foods where the average percentage migration was 2.6% where there was direct contact between the food and packaging compared with 0.4% for indirect contact. It should be stressed that the samples analysed were retail purchases. Hence the types of foodstuffs, packaging and levels of benzophenone were not the same for the direct and indirect contact situations. Caution should therefore be exercised in interpreting the results as they are not a direct comparison of transfer in direct and indirect contact situations. Nevertheless, the results of this study provide evidence that there can be transfer of substances from secondary packaging to foods. 

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. 

JICKELLS s M, POULIN J, MOUNTFORT K A and fernAndez-ocana (2005), Migration of contaminants by gas phase transfer from carton board and corrugated board box secondary packaging into foods . Food Addit Contain, 22(8), 768-782. 

UV-photoinitiators that are violative of migration limits should be either prohibited for use in food packaging, or secondary packaging should be in use that effectively prevents the migration of the UV-photoinitiator from the primary packaging to the food or beverage. 

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