Migration from Packaging Materials

Abstract

Various chemical compounds can be present in foodstuffs which may induce health problems in humans. The origin of these compounds can be very diverse. Mathematical modeling can sometimes be used to predict the concentration of these chemicals in the food. Particularly for compounds which are produced in the food during, e.g., processing and for compounds which migrate from a food contact material this technique can be very fruitful. For the former type of compounds, classical chemical kinetics can be applied. In this contribution, the modeling of the migration from polymeric food contact materials is considered. This migration phenomenon can be modeled mathematically since the physical processes which govern this process are very well studied and understood. Therefore, initially some of these fundamentals will be discussed in more detail.