New system to determine safe food packaging
Although we rely on food packaging materials to protect our food and keep it fresh until we are ready to eat it, the additives contained in plastic, paper, glass and carton packaging can migrate into foods. Now researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging (IVV), together with nine industrial partners participating in the EU-funded FOODMIGROSURE project, have devised a mathematical model to determine how many of these additives find their way into our food. The researchers based their mathematical model on investigations of genuine foods rather than food simulants. Usually, random food samples are specially prepared and subjected to chemical tests in a laboratory. Then, to simplify these analyses, testers usually replace the foodstuffs by legally prescribed food simulants such as olive oil and mixtures of water with acetic acid or alcohol. 'However, we have found that it is not usually possible to draw conclusions about solid foods on the basis of results obtained with liquid food simulants,' said project coordinator, Dr Roland Franz, from the IVV. 'In many cases the contamination of the foodstuffs is higher than hitherto assumed, and that necessitates costly product recalls,' he added. As the world's only systematic collection of such data, the ten partners in the project found the new procedure yielded reliable results. 'We developed various models on the basis of these data. One shows how the additives move about in the plastic. Another shows how many of these substances migrate from the plastic packaging material into the food, the cheese for instance, at the contact surface. A third model describes how the migrants disperse in the food itself,' Dr Franz explained. The researchers then devised a formula to summarise these models. It takes into account not only the structure of the foodstuff, such as its fat content and consistency, but also the type of plastic packaging material used, the various additives and the average quantity of this foodstuff actually eaten by consumers. The same formula can now be used on one occasion to calculate how many packaging additives are present in cheese, and on another occasion to do the same for meat or orange juice. According to Dr Franz, the cost of computer-assisted testing is much lower than for a laboratory test, with the benefit of far more accurate results. Now when applied, the model will be able to enhance product and food safety for European consumers.
Countries
Germany