Study on the migration of residual and decomposed monomers from a biodegradable packaging into food simulants

초록

Growing interests in commercial applications of biodegradable polymers to food packaging demand proper safety assessment. One of the safety concerns for food packaging deals with the introduction of un-intended, often undesirable, substances into food during its contact with the food, and this diffusive process is known as migration. In comparison to typical plastics, the migration behavior for biodegradable polymers is more complex due to the feasibility of the degradation that produces oligomers and monomers. We examined the extent of migration of residual and decomposed monomers from biodegradable plastics into food simulants using liquid chromatography(LC) and gas chromatography(GC). The effect of temperature and UV exposure on the degrees of migration was investigated and rationalized based on migration modeling.