ALTERNATIVE FATTY FOOD SIMULANTS FOR POLYMER MIGRATION TESTING - EXPERIMENTAL CONFIRMATION

A scheme is outlined for rapid and effective evaluation of food contac t materials for compliance with food safety regulations. The scheme is discussed in terms of migration into fatty foodstuffs at long-time ro om temperature storage. Evaluation starts with compositional analysis of the polymer using a rapid extraction test (24 h at 40 degrees C) to extract all potential migratable substances from the polymer. Extract ion test results using isooctane for polyolefins and ethanol for polar polymers compared to global migration limits show the migration behav ior of materials can be classified based on their thicknesses. Thin ma terials with thickness less than or equal to 300 mu m seldom exceed mi gration limits whereas thick (>300 mu m) often do, thus migration test ing is most applicable for thick materials. The extraction test correl ates with migration conditions up to and including sterilization hot f ill (130 degrees C for 0.5 h). Comparison of global migration test dat a into ethanol and olive oil for 32 commercial materials shows ethanol can be used as an alternative simulant to oil. The extraction test re sults represent an upper limit for global migration into oil from thin materials.