Page 55 - FoodFocusThailand No.188 November 2021

SMART PRODUCTION

contact materials to food. Types of migration also used to test the effectiveness of barrier layers, designed for multilayer packaging to
test includes “overall migration,” which is the limit chemical migration into food.
cumulative sum of substances which can Government and private sectors in Thailand have been increasingly alerted in improving
migrate out of the food contact material without the safety of food contact materials in recent years. ASEAN Food Contact Materials
specifying types of substances. Food contact Testing Center has been established to strengthen the Thai food industry. Preparation of
materials will be exposed into food simulants guidelines for recycled materials have been prepared to revise the regulation. The use
under specific condition and time follows by of packaging and food contact materials to be safe for consumers requires concrete
evaporation of the simulants and determine cooperation between the public and private sectors to develop up-to-date guidelines for
the amount of solid compounds. While the use of food contact materials. This would strengthen the Thai business sector in the
“specific migration” focuses on an individual use and development of food and beverage packaging to solve trade barriers and increase
substance by applying specific techniques to the competitiveness of Thailand.
identify the presence of the substance in food.
In many cases, the chromatography technique
is needed to get high precision. More Information Service Info C010
Nowadays, awareness on environmentally
friendly packaging and sustainable choices
among consumers has grown. The food
industries in many countries particularly large
corporations have adopted the use of recycled
materials, especially recycled plastic, for food More Information Service Info C006
and beverage packaging. Recycling materials
are an alternative for the circular economy and
are expected to grow globally with numerous
applications in various industries, especially
in food and beverage packaging. A major
international beverage manufacturer has
implemented a guideline to increase the use
of recycled plastic. However, recycled
materials are at risk of exposure to chemical
contamination, so strict analysis and testing
are required prior to use. The EU and the US
have regulations and requirements for using
recycled materials as food packaging. In
recent years, Thai government prepare to
revise the regulation on recycled plastic for
food contact materials. The collaboration was
established among industry, standard
agencies, food contact material safety testing
agencies, and academic sector and was
supported by the government. The mission is
to draft the safety assessment and
effectiveness of plastic recycling process
guidelines.
Surrogate contaminant testing technique
is often used for analyzing the safety of
recycled materials in food packaging. It is used
to measure the effectiveness of the recycling
process in removing chemical contaminants
from packaging or food contact materials due
to prior use. The testing process is performed
by apply the surrogate contaminant into food
contact materials and subjected through the
recycling process to analyze migration level.
Types of surrogate contaminants will be
volatile and non-volatile such as chlorobenzene,
diethyl ketone, toluene, and benzophenone.
Organic solvents like hexane, heptane or
dichloromethane are used to extract surrogate
contaminants. This technique is also used for
safety measurement of recycled paper which
may be exposed to contamination from ink
compounds like anthracene, benzophenone,
dimethyl phthalate, and methyl stearate.
Surrogate contaminant testing technique is
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