Migration from ovenable boards at high temperatures

Ovenable boards are used for purposes such as packing ready-cooked meals th at are heated at home in either microwave or conventional ovens. Several ov enable boards were tested for overall and specific migration at high temper atures. The samples included three different board grades coated with PET ( polyethylene terephthalate), PP (polypropylene) or dispersion coatings. Tenax adsorbent was used as a food simulant in the migration tests. Tenax w as placed onto the sample, which was heated for 30 minutes at 160 degrees C or 230 degrees C according to sample type. After exposure, the Tenax was d ivided into two portions, each of which was extracted with diethyl ether. O ne of the extracts was used for the gravimetric determination of overall mi gration and the other was analysed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) to identify the specific migration of the substances transferred on to the Tenax from the samples. The main components of the overall migration were determined using infrared spectroscopy (IR). All results showed that the overall migration was below 10 m/dm(2), which i s the overall migration Limit for plastic materials. Hence, it seems that o verall migration is not a limiting factor in the case of ovenable boards. H owever, differences were found between the base boards and coatings tested in this study. Many compounds originating from the coating materials and fr om the base boards were identified.