Migracion De Aditivos En Envases Alimentarios

Type of Polypropylene Material Significantly Influences the Migration of Antioxidants from Polymer Packaging to Food Simulants During Microwave Heating
Jonas Alin, Minna Hakkarainen
Department of Fibre and Polymer Technology, School of Chemical Science and Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm S-100 44, Sweden
Received 20 January 2010; accepted 14 March 2010 DOI10.1002/app.32472 Published online 28 May 2010 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). ABSTRACT: Three different polypropylene materials, polypropylene homopolymer (PP), propylene-ethylene random copolymer (PP-R), and propylene-ethylene copolymer (PP-C) are commonly used in plastic containers designed for microwave heating of food. Migration of antioxidants, Irganox 1010 and Irgafos 168, fromPP, PP-R, and PP-C during microwave heating in contact with different food simulants was investigated by utilizing microwave assisted extraction (MAE) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The polypropylene material significantly influenced the migration rate, which decreased in the order of increasing degree of crystallinity in the materials. PP homopolymer was the most migrationresistant of the studied materials especially in contact with fatty food simulants. The use of isooctane as fatty food simulant resulted in rapid depletion of antioxidants, while migration to another fatty food simulant, 96% ethanol, was much more limited. Migration to aqueous and acidic food simulants was in most cases under the detection limits irrespective of microwaving time and temperature. Thediffusion coefficients were similar to what have been found previously under similar conditions but without microwaves. The effect of swelling was shown by the large increase in the calculated diffusion coefficients when isooctane was used as food simulant instead of 96% C ethanol. V 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 118:
1084–1093, 2010

Key words: polypropylene; antioxidants;chromatography; diffusion; packaging

INTRODUCTION Plastic food packaging should be designed to minimize the migration of additives and degradation products from the packaging material to food. Migrating substances can cause undesirable flavors in the food or even promote toxicity. Understanding the parameters that govern the migration is important for the selection and development of packagingmaterials. Migration from food packaging is often established as global migration, which is the total amount of substance released from the packaging. Chromatographic techniques together with suitable extraction method are ideal for identification and quantitative determination of migrants from plastic materials1 and are increasingly being used to quality control for polymeric materials inclusive foodpackaging, recycled materials, and medical materials.2–4

Correspondence to: M. Hakkarainen (minna@polymer.kth. se). Contract grant sponsor: Swedish Research Council Formas; contract grant number: 2007-793. Journal of Applied Polymer Science, Vol. 118, 1084–1093 (2010)
C V 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Mathematical models have also been developed to predict migration rates.5 In a recentstudy, overall migration methodology was developed to test for food-contact substances with specific migration limits.6 Migration of common additives, such as antioxidants, can be established by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis with ultraviolet (UV) detection because many additives absorb light in the UV region. Microwave assisted extraction (MAE) followed by HPLC-UV analysis hasbeen successfully used to extract Irgafos 168 and irganox 1076 from low density polyethylene (LDPE) with dichloromethane as the extraction solvent.7 Migration of common antioxidants from polymers to foods and food simulants has been investigated in several studies,8–13 often under standard conditions (e.g. 10 days at 40 C). Commonly used antioxidants are therefore good model compounds to make...