Edible cassava starch films carrying rosemary antioxidant extracts for potential use as active food packaging

Contamination in food from packaging material.

Polymeric packaging protects food during storage and transportation, and withstands mechanical and thermal stresses from high-temperature conventional retort or microwave-assisted food processing treatments. Chemical compounds that are incorporated within polymeric packaging materials to improve functionality, may interact with food components during processing or storage and migrate into the food. Once these compounds reach a specified limit, food quality and safety may be jeopardized. Possible chemical migrants include plasticizers, antioxidants, thermal stabilizers, slip compounds, and monomers. Chemical migration from food packaging is affected by a number of parameters including the nature and complexity of food, the contact time and temperature of the system, the type of packaging contact layer, and the properties of the migrants. Researchers study the migration of food-packaging compounds by exposing food or food-simulating liquids to conventional and microwave heating and storage conditions, primarily through chromatographic or spectroscopic methods; from these data, they develop kinetic and risk assessment models. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the migration of chemical compounds into food or food simulants exposed to various heat treatments and storage conditions, as well as a discussion of regulatory issues.

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Migration of Chemical Compounds from Packaging Polymers during Microwave, Conventional Heat Treatment, and Storage.

The production of fossil fuel-derived, synthetic plastics is continually increasing, while poor plastic waste management has recently induced severe pollution issues. Microplastics are plastic particles smaller than 5 mm. Microplastics are ubiquitous and slowly-degrading contaminants in waters and soils. Microplastics have long residence time, high stability, high potential of being fragmented and can adsorb other contaminants. Many aquatic species contain microplastics, which are in particular easily accumulated by planktonic and invertebrate organisms. Then, microplastics are transferred along food chains, leading to physical damages, decrease in nutritional diet value and exposure of the living organism to pathogens. Raw plastics contain chemical additives such as phthalates, bisphenol A and polybrominated diphenyl ethers that may induce toxic effects after ingestion by living organisms. Furthermore, the adsorption capability of microplastics makes them prone to carry several contaminants. Methods to remove microplastics from water and other media are actually needed. Here, we review microplastics occurrence, transport, raw polymers and additives, toxicity and methods of removal. Removal methods include physical sorption and filtration, biological removal and ingestion, and chemical treatments. Mechanisms, efficiency, advantages, and drawbacks of various removal methods are discussed.

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Removal of microplastics from the environment. A review

The employment of novel food packaging materials has increased the number of occurring hazards due to the migration from packaging material to the packaged food. Although polymers have mainly monopolized the interest of migration testing and experimentation, recent studies have revealed that migration also occurs from “traditional” materials generally considered to be safe, such as paper, carton, wood, ceramic, and metal. The regulations and the directives of the EU tend to become stricter in this respect. The emphasis is on reaching a consensus in terms of food simulants and testing conditions for migration studies. Furthermore, the list of hazardous monomers, oligomers, and additives continues to augment in order to ensure that the consumer safety is in current agreement with the HACCP, which is continuously gaining ground.

Migration of Substances from Food Packaging Materials to Foods

Plastic Packaging Materials for Food

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 and more economic compositional analysis in the material. Starting with toxicologically-based specific migration values, like the over 400 specific migration limit values for organic substances listed in the European Union's Synoptic Document No. 7, the corresponding allowable maximum quantity limits 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 plastic, substance and food, contact time and temperature conditions, material thickness and number of uses. These factors can result in a variety of situations which 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 case studies.

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

The amounts of substances migrating from plastics into foodstuffs with high fat contents are in most cases higher than in foodstuffs with water contents. This increase in migration commonly is due to the higher solubility of the migrating organic compounds in fat compared to water. The increase in migration is not necessarily due to an increase in the substance's diffusion coefficient due to interactions between the fat and the plastic as is often assumed. Ethanol is a good simulant for fatty foods because it has little interaction with many plastics, e.g. polyolefins, migrants are readily soluble in it, and because it is easy to work with analytically. The utilizable limits of ethanol and ethanol/water mixtures as food simulants are developed from the physical background of diffusion. The use of ethanol and ethanol/water mixtures is supported by published experimental migration results.

Alternative fatty food simulants for migration testing of polymeric food contact materials.

Alternative methods for the determination and evaluation of migration potential from polymeric food contact materials

The amounts of substances migrating from plastics into foodstuffs with high fat contents are usually higher than into aqueous foodstuffs. In most cases this is due to the higher solubility of the migrating organic compounds in fat compared to water and not due to an increase in the diffusion coefficient due to interactions between the fat and plastic as is often assumed. Ethanol and aqueous ethanol mixtures can be good fatty food simulants because they interact very little with many plastics, migrants are readily soluble in them and because they are easy to work with analytically. The utilize able limits of aqueous ethanol and other low molecular weight solvents as food simulants are developed from the physical chemical background of partition coefficients and diffusion. The use of ethanol simulants is supported by experimental results for polyolefins and rigid polyvinyl chloride. Other low molecular weight solvents for other classes of polymers are suggested. The UNIFAC activity coefficient estimation method is applied to alternative fatty food simulants/polymer systems and estimations for sorption and partition coefficients are compared with experimental results.

A. L. Baner

Papers

Plastic Packaging Materials for Food

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

Alternative fatty food simulants for migration testing of polymeric food contact materials.

Alternative methods for the determination and evaluation of migration potential from polymeric food contact materials

Alternative fatty food simulants for polymer migration testing