Evaluation of Different Conditions of Contact for Caprolactam Migration from Multilayer Polyamide Films into Food Simulants

Abstract

Caprolactam, the polyamide 6 (PA-6) monomer, can migrate during food processing. At cooking temperatures, migration is accelerated and plastic components could degrade, giving off low molecular mass compounds, which can migrate into food. In this work, caprolactam migration from multilayer films containing PA-6 for meat foodstuffs and cheese packaging was performed at contact conditions of 40 degrees C/10 days and 100 degrees C/30 min. The migration into water ranged from 0.89 to 1.22 mg/dm2 and 0.92 to 1.21 mg/dm2, into 3% acetic acid from 1.29 to 1.74 mg/dm2 and 1.13 to 1.62 mg/dm2 and into olive oil from 1.18 to 1.98 mg/dm2 and 0.50 to 0.80 mg/dm2 for films intended for meat foodstuffs for 10 days at 40 degrees C and 30 min at 100 degrees C, respectively. Among PA-6 films used for cheese, caprolactam migration into water ranged from 0.17 to 0.91 mg/dm2 and 0.74 to 1.04 mg/dm2, into 3% acetic acid from 1.15 to 1.26 mg/dm2 and 1.11 to 1.37 mg/dm2 and into olive oil from 0.23 to 0.83 mg/dm2 and 0.37 to 0.56 mg/dm2 for 10 days at 40 degrees C and 30 min at 100 degrees C, respectively. Caprolactam migration evaluation into water and 3% acetic acid at 100 degrees C/30 min could replace the need to apply the test at 40 degrees C/10 days, since similar results were obtained under both conditions. In the case of PA-6 for meat foodstuffs, caprolactam migration into olive oil was highly affected by different conditions of contact, showing values two to three times higher at 40 degrees C/10 days than at 100 degrees C/30 min. For cheese films, caprolactam migration into olive oil was higher at 40 degrees C for 10 days. Copyright (c) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.