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The employment of novel food packaging materials has increased the number of occurring hazards due to the migration from packaging material to the packaged food. Although polymers have mainly monopolized the interest of migration testing and experimentation, recent studies have revealed that migration also occurs from "traditional" materials generally considered to be safe, such as paper, carton, wood, ceramic, and metal. The regulations and the directives of the EU tend to become stricter in this respect. The emphasis is on reaching a consensus in terms of food simulants and testing conditions for migration studies. Furthermore, the list of hazardous monomers, oligomers, and additives continues to augment in order to ensure that the consumer safety is in current agreement with the HACCP, which is continuously gaining ground.
Keywords migration, food simulants, polymers, metals, food packaging, additives
INTRODUCTION
Packaging is an indispensable element in food manufacturing. Despite the well-accepted convenience packaging offers to the consumer, it has been the subject of many debates concerning environmental and health issues. Due to the increasing awareness of consumers in terms of health matters, the importance of the migration of substances from food packaging materials to foods attracted the interest of the scientific and legislative communities.1-4
The term "migration" usually describes a diffusion process, which may be strongly influenced by an interaction of components of the food with the packaging material. Figure 1 depicts all subsequent diffusion steps in the polymer-solution interface. This interaction may substantially effect the properties of the packaging material. However, food components, particularly fat, that migrate into plastics, like PE or PP, will considerably increase the mobility of plastic components, thus, enhancing the migration into the contained food.
Migration is a health issue and is a legal problem in most countries. In an attempt to harmonize legislation, the EU (European Union) and the FDA (Food and Drugs Administration) initiated global control through positive lists of substances that can be used, while restricting substances with toxic potential.5 The general purpose of the legislation is to ensure consumer safety.6 Until robust mathematical models (simulation) manage to effectively predict and evaluate migration, chemical analysis will be irreplaceable. Various analytical methods have been developed to analyze the migrants in the food. For example, HPLC methods are reported in the literature...