Prospective study of fatty overall migration of plastic lunch

* This record is given in both English and Spanish

Overall migration testing is one of the tests performed on plastic materials to prove their compliance with the regulation on plastic materials intended to come into contact with food, Regulation (EU) No 10/2011. Overall migration enables the compliance of the inertia of the material to be verified, such that it does not alter the composition of the food in contact.

Plastic lunch boxes or food containers are a type of article the use of which by the consumers has increased in recent years due to lifestyle, in particular the use of plastic lunch boxes. These articles are nearly always reusable, enabling both the storage and transport of foodstuffs and, in many instances, the heating of food.

The purpose of this work was to provide data regarding the compliance of plastic lunch boxes in relation to fatty overall migration (FOM), applying the methodology outlined in UNE-EN 1186 Standard, under accreditation in the laboratory. The choice of the fatty food simulant for the tests, vegetable oil (simulant D2), was based on the fact that these plastic articles are usually made from polyolefins, materials of apolar character, and for this reason it is reasonable assume that contact with fatty foods would give the worst result in terms of potential migration. To our knowledge, there is no available data published in Spain concerning this type of testing and articles.

Fifteen samples of plastic lunch boxes (for repeated use), of 13 different brands acquired in the retail sector of the Community of Madrid, were analysed for overall migration using vegetable oil (test OM 2). The overall migration limit of 10 mg/dm2, in the third migration test, was not exceeded in any of the samples. In 9 out of the 15 samples, quantifiable results were obtained, with values ranging from 1.7 mg/dm2 to 6.1 mg/dm2.

In addition, with the aim of carrying out a comparison of the results with the conventional D2 simulant and alternative simulants, 11 of the 15 samples were also tested with isooctane (2 days 20 ºC). Only in one of the 11 samples a significant difference between the results was detected, being the value obtained with simulant D2 higher than with isooctane. The mean result of the samples analysed with both simulants (11 samples) was very similar: 3.0 mg/dm2 with simulant D2 and 2.1 mg/dm2 with isooctane