Correlation of foodstuffs with ethanol-water mixtures with regard to the solubility of migrants from food contact materials

Food Addit Contam Part A Chem Anal Control Expo Risk Assess. 2014;31(3):498-511. doi: 10.1080/19440049.2014.880518.

Abstract

Today most foods are available in a packed form. During storage, the migration of chemical substances from food packaging materials into food may occur and may therefore be a potential source of consumer exposure. To protect the consumer, standard migration tests are laid down in Regulation (EU) No. 10/2011. When using those migration tests and applying additional conservative conventions, estimated exposure is linked with large uncertainties including a certain margin of safety. Thus the research project FACET was initiated within the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission with the aim of developing a probabilistic migration modelling framework which allows one (1) to calculate migration into foods under real conditions of use; and (2) to deliver realistic concentration estimates for consumer exposure modelling for complex packaging materials (including multi-material multilayer structures). The aim was to carry out within the framework of the FACET project a comprehensive systematic study on the solubility behaviour of foodstuffs for potentially migrating organic chemicals. Therefore a rapid and convenient method was established to obtain partition coefficients between polymer and food, KP/F. With this method approximately 700 time-dependent kinetic experiments from spiked polyethylene films were performed using model migrants, foods and ethanol-water mixtures. The partition coefficients of migrants between polymer and food (KP/F) were compared with those obtained using ethanol-water mixtures (KP/F's) to investigate whether an allocation of food groups with common migration behaviour to certain ethanol-water mixtures could be made. These studies have confirmed that the solubility of a migrant is mainly dependent on the fat content in the food and on the ethanol concentration of ethanol-water mixtures. Therefore dissolution properties of generic food groups for migrants can be assigned to those of ethanol-water mixtures. All foodstuffs (including dry foods) when allocated to FACET model food group codes can be classified into a reduced number of food categories each represented by a corresponding ethanol-water equivalency.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adipates / analysis
  • Adipates / toxicity
  • Algorithms
  • Chromatography, Gas
  • Chromatography, Liquid
  • Citrates / analysis
  • Citrates / toxicity
  • Ethanol
  • European Union
  • Food Contamination / analysis*
  • Food Contamination / legislation & jurisprudence
  • Food Packaging* / legislation & jurisprudence
  • Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points / methods
  • Humans
  • Models, Statistical
  • Polyethylene / analysis
  • Solubility
  • Styrene / analysis
  • Styrene / toxicity
  • Water

Substances

  • Adipates
  • Citrates
  • Water
  • 2-acetyltributylcitrate
  • dioctyl adipate
  • Ethanol
  • Styrene
  • Polyethylene