SATURATED AND AROMATIC MINERAL OIL HYDROCARBONS FROM PAPERBOARD FOOD PACKAGING: ESTIMATION OF LONG-TERM MIGRATION FROM CONTENTS IN THE PAPERBOARD & DATA ON BOXES FROM THE MARKET

In the absence of a functional barrier, mineral oil hydrocarbons from printing inks and recycled fibers tend to migrate from paper-based food packaging materials through the gas phase into dry food. Concentrations easily far exceed the limit derived from the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA). Since estimation of long-term 20 migration into the food by testing at 40°C for 10 days is difficult, it seems preferable (and easier) to use the mineral oil content in the paperboard. Evaporation experiments showed that hydrocarbons eluted up to about n-C24 are sufficiently volatile for relevant migration into dry food: in worst case situations about 80% migrate into the packed food. The extraction of the paperboard was optimized to give good recovery of the relevant hydrocarbons, but discriminate against those of high molecular mass which tend to disturb gas chromatographic analysis in on-line coupled normal phase HPLC-GC-FID. Even though some of the relevant hydrocarbons had already evaporated, the average concentration of