The application of a model for evaluating the compliance of plastic materials with food regulations

A model for estimating the migration of organic substances from plastic materials into foodstuffs has been previously developed. The use of this model allows a shift away from expensive and time consuming migration analysis in foods to much simpler compositional analysis in the material. Starting with toxicologically based specific migration values, like the over 400 SML values for organic substances listed in the European Union's Synoptic Document N. 7, the corresponding allowable limits (QM) of these substances in the plastic were calculated. The amount of migration that can occur depends on many different factors such as the natures of the plasic, substance and food, contact time and temperature conditions, material thickness and number of uses. These factors can result in a variety of situations wich must be taken into account in the estimation of migration. The handling of the migration estimation model is demonstrated for several practical migration scenarios using a series of ca se studies.