On December 21, 2016 the EU Reference Laboratory for food contact materials (EURL-FCM) of the European Commission’s (EC) Joint Research Centre (JRC) published a report on interlaboratory comparison of migration testing, focused on temperature control during migration tests by article filling.

Participating laboratories had to carry out a migration test by article filling in provided polypropylene cups with food simulant D1 (ethanol 50%) at 70°C for 2 h, and monitor the inside temperature of the food simulant. Only 30% of the participating 45 laboratories reported the temperature of the food simulant to remain in the desired range during the full contact time.

The unsatisfactory results of this interlaboratory comparison “will trigger further discussion to improve the temperature control during a migration test.” The information on the operating procedures provided by the laboratories through the dedicated questionnaire is expected to give “a first insight in the factors that can be important to reach a satisfactory score.” As an outcome of this discussion, one or two methods for temperature control during migration testing will be selected and compared in another interlaboratory comparison in the future.

Read more

EURL-FCM (December 21, 2016). “Report of an inter-laboratory comparison from the European Union Reference Laboratory for Food Contact Materials: ILC01 2015 – Temperature control during migration tests by article filling.

Reference

Tsochatzis, E., et al. (2016). “Report of an inter-laboratory comparison from the European Union Reference Laboratory for Food Contact Materials. ILC01 2015 – Temperature control during migration tests by article filling.JRC EURL-FCM, EUR 27826 EN, doi:10.2788/536852 (published December 21, 2016) (pdf)

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