Safety & Quality Of Plastic Food Contact Materials. Optimization Of Extrction Time & Extraction Yield Based On Arithmetic Rules Derived From Mathematical Description Of Diffusion.

Migration of packaging constituents into food may raise concerns about food safety. This paper describes the conclusions of an EU research project (AIR 941025), facilitating the introduction of migration control into good manufacturing practice & into enforcement policies. The first part describes a re-evaluation of analytical approaches to extract & identify potential migrations released by plastic materials, viz. comparison of analytical methods, choice of extraction solvents & of fat simulants. Extraction time needed to achieve a given extraction yield is focused upon here. By correlating these parameters with simple & practical equations, it is possible to design alternative tests for control of compliance of packaging plastics. Using a reference experiment it is possible to calculate & of extraction which can be achieved in a given time.