Optimization of a process capable of decreasing the pollution from PVC packaging material

This work is the study of a process capable of decreasing the migration of the plasticizer into a liquid food or a simulant from a plasticized PVC pac kaging. The treatment is a two-step process: (1) soaking in a liquid, and ( 2) drying at various temperatures. The efficiency of this method depends on many factors: nature of the liquid and immersion time, temperature and tim e of drying, etc. The influence of the most important of them had been quan tified with a mathematical model previously described. The purpose of this study is to search for the best value of each parameter and, therefore, to optimize the reduction of mass transfers. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.