Characterization of patterns of food packaging usage in Portuguese homes

Abstract

This study aimed to permit further refinements in exposure assessments for migrants from food-contact materials by contributing to the characterization, at the household level, of the food packaging usage (amount and type) of Portuguese urban families. Packages from domestic use were collected from a sample of 105 consumers from 34 households over a 30 day period. Collected packages (more than 6 000 items) were characterized in the laboratory and data were used to estimate: (i) global packaging usage and food intake; (ii) the consumption factors (CF) that describe the fraction of the daily diet expected to contact specific packaging materials and (iii) the food-type factors (FTF) that reflect the fraction of all food contacting each material that is different in nature according to 6 major types: aqueous, acidic, alcoholic, milky, fatty and dry. The daily intake of packaged food and beverages consumed at home ranged from 5 to 50 g/kg bw. Considering all materials, total package usage ranged from 0.1 to 0.6 dm 2 /day.kg bw. The ratio between package surface area in contact and the quantity of food was determined for all packaging items collected and an average value of 25 dm 2 /kg food was recorded. Data were gathered and presented in a manner compatible with current probabilistic approaches to exposure assessment. In this way, relevant

Consumption of packaged foods by the Portuguese population: type of materials and its associated factors

“…Most of the food items (56.7%) consumed by the Portuguese population were package foods. In general, plastic was the most frequently reported packaging material, which is also observed in other studies using data from British children, Netherlands retail and household consumption from some Portuguese regions (Poças et al, 2009(Poças et al, , 2010Bouma et al, 2003;Foster et al, 2010). Multilayer material and plastic were the materials with more significant differences between the tested population groups.…”

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“…From recent surveys, it is clear that the ratio of surface area of food packaging materials to food mass is in many cases higher than 6 dm 2 /kg (VKM, 2009). In a study of the diet of a general population, performed in households in Portugal (Poças et al, 2009), the average ratio was found to be 11.7 dm 2 /kg overall, with a value of 7.2 dm 2 /kg specifically for cartons containing liquids. A UK survey found that the ratio for infants (less than 12 months old) was, on average, less than 6 dm 2 /kg (Foster et al, 2010), but this was said to be due to the large contribution of either breast milk or tap water used to reconstitute infant formula in this age group.…”

Recent developments in the risk assessment of chemicals in food and their potential impact on the safety assessment of substances used in food contact materials

“…In a study of the diet of a general population, performed in households in Portugal (Poças et al, 2009), the average ratio was found to be 11.7 dm 2 /kg overall, with a value of 7.2 dm 2 /kg specifically for cartons containing liquids. A UK survey found that the ratio for infants (less than 12 months old) was, on average, less than 6 dm 2 /kg (Foster et al, 2010), but this was said to be due to the large contribution of either breast milk or tap water used to reconstitute infant formula in this age group.…”