Migration kinetics of four photo-initiators from paper food packaging to solid food simulants

ABSTRACT

The migration behaviour of four photo-initiators (BP, EHA, MBP and Irgacure 907) was studied by ‘printing’ onto four different food-packaging materials (Kraft paper, white cardboard, Polyethylene (PE)-coated paper and composite paper) and tracking movement into the food simulant: Tenax-TA (porous polymer 2,6-diphenyl furan resin). The results indicated that the migration of the photo-initiators was related to the molecular weight and log K_o/w of each photo-initiator. At different temperatures, the migration rates of the photo-initiators were different in papers with different thicknesses. The amount of each photo-initiator found in the food was closely related to the food matrix. The Weibull model was used to predict the migration load into the food simulants by calculating the parameters τ and β and determining the relationship of the two parameters with temperature and paper thickness. The established Weibull model was then used to predict the migration of each photo-initiator with respect to different foods. A two-parameter Weibull model fitted the actual situation, with some deviation from the actual migration amount.

KEYWORDS:

• Paper packaging material
• photo-initiator
• migration behaviour
• LC-MS/MS
• Weibull model

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Jing Li for her excellent technical assistance, and to Lei Ding for his assistance with LC-MS/MS analyses.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

The supplementary material for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province [grant number 1408085MKL38], the Special Innovative Province Construction in Anhui Province [grant number 15czs08032], and the Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Educational Commission [grant number KJ2016A216].