Project SafeFoodPack Design: case study on indirect migration from paper and boards

Abstract

Migration due to indirect contact with packaging caused several major sanitary crises, including the spread contamination of dry food by mineral oils and printing ink constituents from cardboard. The issues are still not fully resolved because the mechanisms have been insufficiently described and the relationship between design, contamination level, type of contaminant, and conditions of storage (time and temperature) are poorly understood. This study proposes a forensic analysis of these phenomena when food is separated from cardboard by a plastic layer. Practical relationships and advanced simulation scenarios were devised and validated against the long-term migration between 20 and 60°C of 15 substances. They were chosen to be representative of the main contaminants of cardboard: aliphatic and aromatic mineral oils, photo-initiators and plasticisers. Data were summarised as iso-contamination curves and iso-contamination times up to 2 years. Simple rules are illustrated to extrapolate the results to arbitrary conditions in order to identify critical substances and to estimate the plastic film's thickness to keep the contamination within acceptable limits. Recommendations for the risk management of contamination routes without contact are finally drafted.

The Ubiquitous Issue of Cross-Mass Transfer: Applications to Single-Use Systems

“…Comparatively to S1, case-study S2 introduces several variations: An air layer separates A and B during step 1 (both materials can be easily separated); material A is discarded when B is in contact with F during step 2. As already discussed in Reference [17], adding an air layer does not prevent mass transfer but only slows down its rate. The driving force involves the solute volatility via its vapor saturation pressure, pisat(T) and its chemical affinity for the original condensed phase exp(1+χi,j).…”

“…NASA [54] and ESA [55] provide extensive lists of outgassing data categorized by materials and type of materials (polymer family, thermosets). Similar phenomena occur at atmospheric pressure for a broad range of aliphatic or aromatic compounds [17]. Though there is a strong effect of distance for non-volatile substances, no direct or permanent contact is needed to trigger the cross-mass transfer of packaging constituents, as shown experimentally with radiolabeled molecules [27,56].…”

“…The results are plotted in Figure 2 with maximum rates of transfer summarized in Table 3. For the first step, Equation (3) in [17] provides an analytical solution on short times, highlighting its linearity with time and the main physicochemical parameters acting on the release of i = s A from A to B and, equivalently, of i = s B from B to A. Using notations of Equation (4), the rates of transfer of s A or s B on short contact times read:(1−Ci,jtCi,jt=0)li≈hi,2ki,jRTt=hi,2pisat(T)V¯iRTexp(1+χi,j)t for (i=sA,j=3) and (i=sB,j=1)…”

“…Emerging cross-contamination phenomena complicates the management of the migration risks along the supply chain. The repeated crises involving the contamination of foodstuffs by printing ink constituents [9,10,11] and by mineral oils [12,13,14,15] offer good examples of delayed contaminations across one or several materials [16,17]. In the literature, the migration of non-intentionally added substances (NIAS) has been the standard terminology for contaminations occurring without prior identification of the main sources, mechanisms, and pathways.…”

Review of analytical approaches for the identification of non-intentionally added substances in paper and board food contact materials

“…For each analyte that was confirmed to be present in the foodstuff, a complementary analysis was performed on the packaging to demonstrate that the source of the compounds was due to migration from the printed paper or board. Nine out of the 20 compounds were confirmed to be present in the foods as well as in the packaging itself, which indicates that these compounds migrated from the packaging Nguyen et al (2017). studied the indirect migration of compounds from printing ink from paper and board to food.…”