Alternative methods for the determination and evaluation of migration potential from polymeric food contact materials

Abstract

A scheme is outlined for rapid and effective evaluation on food contact materials for compliance with food safety regulations. The scheme is discussed in terms of migration into fatty foodstuffs at long-time room temperature storage. Evaluation starts with compositional analysis to the polymer using a rapid extraction test (24 h at 40 centigrades) to extract all potential migrateable substances from the polymer. Assuming total transfer of potential migrants from thin materials into the food, determined by the rapid extraction test, one can easily derive a maximum value for migration. Migration theory is used to calculate upper limits for the extent of migration for all thick food contact materials using the polyolefins. Expressions for estimating diffusion coefficients in polyolefins are given. A method is outlined for evaluating specific and global migration potential of unidentified substances.