Evaluation of plastics for food packaging

One of the principal aims of the regulations for food contact materials and articles is the protection of the consumer. In order to fulfil this goal many analytical questions must be answered in the next few years. Of great help in the evaluation procedures can be theoretical predictions of migration based on empirical data for partition and diffusion coefficients. Using well established gas chromatographic methods for the detection of volatiles and new techniques involving supercritical gases for the analysis of minimally volatile constituents both specific and overall migration can be investigated. Further activities must be focused on the organoleptic properties and the average migration potential in different groups of materials and articles produced by the usual technology. Better correlations between rates of migration into food simulants and into real foodstuffs should be found in order to make the evaluation of plastics as realistic as possible.