Significance and Use

Knowledge of migrants from plastic materials may serve many useful purposes, such as testing for compliance with food additive regulations. The procedure described in this test method is recommended as suitable for obtaining such data on many migrant(s)/plastic(s) combinations.

1. Scope

1.1 This test method covers the use of the FDA migration cell in the extraction of components and permits quantitation of individual migrants from plastic materials by suitable extracting liquids, including liquid foods and food-stimulating solvents.

1.2 This test method provides a two-sided, liquid extraction test for plastic materials that can be formed into film, sheet, or disks.

1.3 This test method has been applied to a variety of migrant/polymer systems in contact with numerous foods and food simulants. Though most of the migrants examined were radiolabeled, the use of the FDA cell has been validated for migration studies of unlabeled sytrene from polystyrene.

1.4 This test method has been shown to yield reproducible results under the conditions for migration tests requested by the FDA. However, if the data is to be submitted to the FDA, it is suggested that their guidelines be consulted.

1.5 Because it employs two-sided extraction, this test method may not be suitable for multi-layered plastics intended for single-sided food contact use.

1.6 The size of the FDA migration cell as described may preclude its use in determining total nonvolatile extractives in some cases.

Note 1For more information, see Practice D 1898, the AOAC Methods of Analysis on Flexible Barrier Materials Exposed for Extraction, and the 1995 Recommendations for Chemistry Data for Indirect Food Additive Petitions.

1.7 Analytical procedures must be available to quantitate the migrant(s) generated by this test method.

1.8 The values stated in SI units are to be regarded as the standard.

1.9 This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety and health practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use. Specific hazards statements are given in Section 8.

Note 2There is no similar or equivalent ISO standard.

2. Referenced Documents (purchase separately) The documents listed below are referenced within the subject standard but are not provided as part of the standard.

ASTM Standards

D883 Terminology Relating to Plastics

D1898 Practice for Sampling of Plastics

E691 Practice for Conducting an Interlaboratory Study to Determine the Precision of a Test Method

IEEE/ASTM SI 10 Standard for Use of the International System of Units (SI): The Modernized Metric System

Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC) Methods of Analysis

Keywords

diffusion; food packaging; indirect additives; migration cell; migration testing; polymer extraction;

ICS Code

ICS Number Code 83.080.01 (Plastics in general)

DOI: 10.1520/D4754-11

ASTM International is a member of CrossRef.

ASTM D4754