Potential Migration of Residual Contaminants from Secondary Recycled PETE into the Food Supply - A Safety Assessment

This project was an extension of the PETE recycling project which demonstrated that most surrogate contaminants still survive after washing and drying. These experiments are critical in determining whether the FDA=s 0.5 ppb threshold for estimated dietary intake (EDI) is exceeded. The results obtained from this study suggest that washing,drying, and remelting significantly removed contaminants from recycled PETE at varying magnitudes, depending upon type and residual concentrations of the contaminants adsorbed on and absorbed in polymer matrix. Most extraction data obtained suggest that migration of the residual contaminants from the extruded PETE sheets occurred in the food simulants at concentrations lower than 10 ppb. At very high concentrations of butyric acid and benzene, a higher rate of the contaminant migration from the extruded PETE into the food simulants was observed. This resulted in contaminant concentrations exceeding 10 ppb. The migration data obtained from these samples would represent the most conservative conditions.