ESTABLISHMENT OF A REFERENCE COLLECTION OF ADDITIVES AND AN ANALYTICAL HANDBOOK OF REFERENCE DATA TO SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT OF EU REGULATIONS ON FOOD CONTACT PLASTICS

A collection has been made of additives that are required as analytica l standards for enforcement of European Union legislation on food cont act plastics, The 100 additives have been characterized by mass spectr ometry, infra-red spectroscopy and proton nuclear magnetic resonance s pectroscopy to provide reference spectra. Gas chromatographic retentio n times have been recorded to facilitate identification by retention i ndex. This information has been further supplemented by physico-chemic al data. Finally, chromatographic methods have been used to indicate t he presence of any impurities in the commercial chemicals. Samples of the reference substances are available on request and the collection o f spectra and other information will be made available in printed form at and on-line through the Internet. This paper gives an over-view of the work done to establish the reference collection and the spectral a tlas, which together will assist enforcement laboratories in the chara cterization of plastics and the selection of analytical methods for ad ditives that may migrate.