USE OF HIGH TEMPERATURE-RESISTANT SORBENTS AS SIMULANTS FOR TESTING

The amended Council Directive 82/711/EEC will include the test conditi ons for plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact w ith foodstuffs at high temperature. The most stringent test condition (excluding susceptor materials) will be heating of the material for 2 h at 175-degrees-C in a conventional oven. For fatty foodstuffs, olive oil (simulant D), synthetic triglycerides or sunflower oil shall be u sed for the test. If these simulants are found inappropriate, other si mulants and conditions of time and temperature may be used. In order t o perform a correct evaluation of such materials one must distinguish between volatile and non-volatile migrants, between additives and deco mposition products, and between overall and specific migration. No uni versally applicable simulant has been found yet which is able to provi de all the data needed for evaluation. The advantages and limitations of a high temperature-resistant simulant will be described.