BS EN 1186-13:2002

Materials and articles in contact with foodstuffs. Plastics. Test methods for overall migration at high temperatures (British Standard)

This European Standard describes test methods for the determination of the overall migration into fatty food simulants from plastics materials and articles, by total immersion of test specimens in a fatty food simulant at temperatures from 100 °C up to and including, 175 °C for selected times.  Also described is a procedure with a substitute test medium.  In this substitute procedure the mass of components adsorbed on modified polyphenylene oxide (MPPO) is taken as a measure for the assessment of the overall migration into olive oil. NOTE 1 The total immersion test method has been written for use with the fatty food simulant, olive oil.  The test method can also be used with appropriate modifications with 'other fatty food simulants ' called simulant D - a synthetic mixture of triglycerides, sunflower oil and corn oil.  These other fatty food simulants will produce different chromatograms for the simulant methyl esters to those of the methyl esters of olive oil.  Select suitable chromatogram peaks of the methyl esters of the other fatty food simulants for the quantitative determination of the simulant extracted from the test specimens. NOTE 2 A comparative migration test carried out with polypropylene and polyethylene terephthalate high temperature application containers as test samples at conditions 2 h at 100 °C and 2 h at 175 °C, respectively, in contact with 14C-labelled synthetic triglyceride and MPPO provided test results comparable within the analytical tolerance of the methods. NOTE 3 To obtain reproducible and repeatable results using the MPPO method it may be necessary to measure the temperature of the test specimen before starting the migration period.  An appropriate method for measuring the temperature of the test specimen needs to be established. The described methods are most suitable for food contact articles in the form of sheets and films, but can also be applied to a wide range of articles and containers.