Migration Studies of Two Common Components of UV-curing Inks into Food Simulants
Miguel A. Lago,
Raquel Sendón,
Juana Bustos,
María T. Nieto,
Perfecto Paseiro Losada,
Ana Rodríguez-Bernaldo de Quirós
Affiliations
Miguel A. Lago
Department of Analytical Chemistry, Nutrition and Food Science, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Santiago de Compostela, E-15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Raquel Sendón
Department of Analytical Chemistry, Nutrition and Food Science, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Santiago de Compostela, E-15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Juana Bustos
National Food Center, Spanish Agency of Food Safety and Nutrition, E-28220 Majadahonda, Spain
María T. Nieto
National Food Center, Spanish Agency of Food Safety and Nutrition, E-28220 Majadahonda, Spain
Perfecto Paseiro Losada
Department of Analytical Chemistry, Nutrition and Food Science, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Santiago de Compostela, E-15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Ana Rodríguez-Bernaldo de Quirós
Department of Analytical Chemistry, Nutrition and Food Science, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Santiago de Compostela, E-15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain
The Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) has reported many cases of different UV curing inks components in foodstuffs during the last few years. These contaminants reach foodstuffs mainly by set-off, their principal migration mechanism from the package. Under this premise, this work has tried to characterize the process of migration of two common UV ink components: a photoinitiator (4-Methylbenzophenone) and a coinitiator (Ethyl-4-(dimethylamino) benzoate), from the most common plastic material used in food packaging low-density polyethylene (LDPE) into six different food simulants. The migration kinetics tests were performed at four different common storage temperatures, obtaining the key migration parameters for both molecules: the coefficients of diffusion and partition. The migration process was highly dependent on the storage conditions, the photoinitiator properties and the pH of the foodstuff.
