Testing overall migration from superabsorber materials used for food packaging

Testing overall migration in aqueous simulants of superabsorbent polymers f or absorption of releasing liquids from packed meat, fish or vegetable is n ot comparable with the test using conventional plastics. Water interacts ve ry strongly with the superabsorbent material whereas the interaction with c onventional plastics is negligible small. On the basis of experiments to th e overall migration in dependency to the used water volume, conclusions to reasonable testing strategies were drawn. The water bound in the absorber d oes not contribute to the migration, the migrating substances are located o nly in the not bound water and the supernatant. The water bound in the abso rber therefore may not be taken into account for overall migration calculat ion. As long as the whole potentially available water will be bound in the absorber no transport medium for the migration of superabsorbent material i nto the food is available. Limiting the superabsorbent amount in a packagin g system related to the packed food amount by the overall migration does no t lead to the intended consumer protection, because only sufficient absorbe nt capacity prevents migration to the packed food. Therefore alternative re quirements for superabsorbent materials are needed.