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The technical and scientific basis for the current rules for testing with food simulants will be reviewed. By working with an extensive and active network, progress Europe-wide in the development of knowledge and understanding on this topic will be evaluated and interpreted. Recommendations on any changes needed to the use of food simulants for migration testing and to the associated rules will be made. Finally, the work will help to identify what experimental work, if any, may be needed in the future to help remedy problems using food simulants for the safety assessment of plastic food packaging materials.
The use of simple liquids to test plastics for migration was introduced in Europe more than 35 years ago when food packaging was simpler than it is now. There was neither the know-how nor the analytical instruments available to test the foods themselves and because testing for general food classes was desirable, liquids intended to mimic the migration properties of foods were established. It was not intended that these simulants would give numerically the same migration levels as the foods they were intended to mimic; it was considered that they would overestimate migration into food.
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Testing using foods is now considered as important as testing using food simulants; in fact it is suggested that food test results should have priority over simulant test results. Testing foods for a wide range of chemical migrants is now within the capability of most food analysis laboratories and this has identified some instances where food simulants have underestimated rather than overestimated migration.
<p>Find more about this project and other FSA food safety-related projects at the <a href="http://www.food.gov.uk/science/research/" target="_blank">Food Standards Agency Research webpage</a>.