L. Incarnato et al., RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PROCESSING-STRUCTURE-MIGRATION PROPERTIES FOR RECYCLED POLYPROPYLENE IN FOOD-PACKAGING, Food additives and contaminants, 15(2), 1998, pp. 195-202
In this work the relationships between processing, structure and migra
tion properties of recycled polypropylene (PP) were analysed in relati
on to the possible use of recycled PP in food packaging applications.
PP containers used in food packaging were contaminated with food and t
hen washed reduced into a processable size, dried and reprocessed by i
njection moulding. Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) analysis, mecha
nical, and total migration tests were performed on injection moulded s
amples to verify the effect of the recycling process on the structure
and properties of PP. In order to evaluate the effect of the molecular
weight on the properties of the recycled polymer, the study was condu
cted on containers produced by injection moulding made from a low mole
cular weight (LMW) PP and on containers produced by thermoforming made
from a high molecular weight (HMW) PP.