Chemicals used in plastic materials and articles in contact with food: compliance with statutory limits on composition and migration (year 3)

Monday 17 October 2005

Food Survey Information Sheet 76/05

This information sheet reports the results of the third year of this survey. This is the third and last in a series of surveys that has tested for compliance with legislation on chemical migration, from plastic materials and articles in contact with food. Years 1 and 2 were reported in Food Survey Information Sheets 43/03 and 55/04. There are controls in British law to protect consumers from unsafe levels in food of the chemical building blocks (monomers) that are used to make plastics for contact with food.

A total of 150 samples were tested. Samples of the following were included in this survey: food packaged in either of two polyolefins (polyethylene and polypropylene); and food contact articles made from polyolefins, acrylic resin or nylon. Half of the samples (75) of foods packaged in polyolefins were analysed for semi-volatile, unsaturated hydrocarbon monomers (cyclooctene, 1,9-decadiene, 1-decene, 1-dodecene and 1-tetradecene).

The other 75 samples were food contact articles. They were tested using food simulants defined in European Union law for migration testing. Polyolefinic articles were tested for the above semi-volatile, unsaturated hydrocarbon monomers. Simulants exposed to acrylic resin articles were analysed for the following: acrylic acid, dodecyl ester; methacrylic acid, allyl ester; methacrylic acid, cyclohexyl ester; methacrylic acid, diester with 1,4-butanediol; and methacrylic acid, 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl ester. Nylon articles were tested for migration of hexamethylenediamine.

As in previous parts of this 3 year survey, Comité Européen Nationalisation (CEN) methods have been improved and new methods have been developed. This is being taken forward with CEN.

All samples in this survey complied with the law. There was no measurable chemical migration into foods or simulants for 148 out of 150 samples tested. In 2 polyolefinic articles, 1-tetradecene migrated from a storage jar (at 0.0024 mg/dm; less than one third of the legal limit) and from a sandwich bag (at 0.00069 mg/dm; less than one tenth of the legal limit).