ABSTRACT
Consumers are conscious of the importance of healthy and safe food in their health status. Packaging plays an essential role in the protection of goods (Marsh and Bugusu, 2007). However, packaging is also one of the most noteworthy features that can affect food safety. Migration, the transfer of chemicals from the packaging to foods, is the food packaging interaction that affects food safety the most. Many factors can inuence migration, such as the type of polymer, the properties of the migrants, the food itself (e.g., physical state, fat content), and the time and temperature conditions of the contact (Hotchkiss, 1997; Arvanitoyannis and Bosnea, 2004). Indeed, the high fat content of the food and the high temperature of contact favor the release of substances from the packaging (Cruz et al., 2008; Silva et al., 2008). Migration is not a health issue per se; however, there is a need for establishing a list of acceptable materials, authorized substances, and their limits (Arvanitoyannis and Bosnea, 2004). Several topics make the establishment of legislation a complex issue, namely, the number of compounds that can be used in the manufacture of packaging, the scarcity or lack of information on the potential migrants (for instance, toxicological data), and the reduction or not suitable methods of analysis (most of food matrices are complex and most of the potential migrants are present at low levels, requiring low detection limits and the need for conrmatory techniques to avoid false positives or false negatives) (Sanches-Silva et al., 2005; Sendón García et al., 2006; Gallart-Ayala et al., 2013; Grob, 2014). Moreover, in some cases due to the ubiquitous contamination, it is difcult to obtain blank samples (e.g., phthalates, bisphenol A [BPA], and related compounds). The knowledge on the food contamination levels with these compounds is important to understand the potential risk to human health. Table 23.1 resumes the compounds that are more prone to migration from different food contact materials (FCMs); these include additives that are used to achieve a certain technological function in the packaging and
23.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 461 23.2 Possible Food Packaging Contaminants ...............................................................................463
