The Project MIGRESIVES
Most food packages and food contact materials are manufactured using adhesives. The EU regulates food contact materials, as their constituents should not contaminate food and endanger consumer’s health. In contrary to plastics which are regulated by positive lists of authorised ingredients, adhesives are not yet covered by a specific regulation. The MIGRESIVES project wants to elaborate a scientific based risk assessment approach to meet current general EU regulatory requirements. The project outcome may also form a basis for future specific EU legislation and provide industry, especially small and medium sized enterprises, a tool to ensure that migration from adhesives is in compliance with the regulatory requirements.
The concept will be built on the following pillars:
- (i) classification of adhesives according to chemistry and uses
- (ii) test strategies based on physico-chemical behaviour of adhesives
- (iii) modelling migration/exposure from adhesives
- (iv) providing guidelines to integrate the risk assessment approach into the daily life of companies and
- (v) extensive training/education to SMEs and large dissemination for general adoption of the concept in Europe.
Classification of adhesive types and their compounds is a complex issue. For the categorisation of adhesive types used in food contact application, adhesives have been classified according to their raw material polymer, the solvent system (solvent free, water based, solvent based) and the curing type (reactive, non-reactive). This way a classification matrix was built based on industry experience from adhesive as well as packaging producers. This collection includes the most important applications for these adhesive types. Based on this classification, 23 representative test systems had been defined and selected by the consortium. They are considered to be typical for adhesives formulations, materials and structures used for food contact materials and include different application and handling conditions, like type of food, type of contact, temperature and storage conditions. Furthermore a range of cork stopper applications with polyurethane adhesives are investigated in the project.
Experimental studies using these test systems are in hands now. They include compositional studies on known components as well as screening and migration studies in order to derive partitioning and diffusion coefficients in adhesive layers and packaging substrates. These parameters are needed for mathematical modelling of the migration processes in order to to estimate migration from multilayer food contact materials containing adhesives. Conventional migration testing is in most cases highly time consuming and costly. Therefore alternative approaches are envisaged in this project by theoretical estimation and by accelerated analytical tests. As analytical tools, multi-methods on the basis of GC, HPLC and solid phase microextraction – GC have been developed and are further refined during the project. A software tool is under development. Furthermore, a feasibility study on bioassays has been started.
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