On January 23, 2014, the article “Correlation of foodstuffs with ethanol-water mixtures with regard to solubility of migrants from food contact materials” was published in the peer-reviewed journal Food Additives & Contaminants: Part A. The study experimentally evaluated migration from low-density polyethylene films (LDPE) into actual foodstuffs, and compared it with migration into water-ethanol food simulants. LDPE films are often in direct food contact as lining material in multi-layer packaging (i.e. beverage cartons). The study was carried out as part of the EU funded FACET (Flavours, Additives, and Food Contact Material Exposure Task) research project. The study authors Annika Seiler from the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging (IVV) at Freising, Germany and colleagues analyzed migration of chemicals from LDPE food contact materials spiked with known concentrations of chemicals into actual food samples by measuring the chemical’s concentration decrease in the spiked food contact material. The same method was used to determine migration into food simulants. Measurements were performed at different temperatures and with varying time. The study’s results confirm the correlation between chemical migration into actual foodstuffs and migration into water-ethanol food simulant. The latter are commonly used for estimating chemical migration using migration models. Furthermore, the results support the hypothesis that a food’s fat content determines the extent of migration for lipophilic substances.
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FPF report “Experimental verification of migration modelling”
