Migration studies on fatty acid amide slip additives from plastics into food simulants

Abstract

Specific migration studies, using food simulants, have been conducted on a range of polymers which are used in food packaging and contain commonly used fatty acid amide slip additives. Migration levels using the test conditions (10 days at 40 degrees C) were found to depend primarily upon the food simulant and the polymer type, with the fat simulant and low density polyethylene giving the highest values in the range 1.8-3.1 milligrams of fatty acid amide per kilogram of simulant. Extremely low levels of migration, < 0.05 milligrams of fatty acid amide per kilogram of simulant, were found with aqueous food simulants for all plastics tested, and fat simulant with PVC and polystyrene plastics.