New plasticisers for stretch PVC films intended to be in contact with foodstuffs for the Brazilian market

Abstract

Different types of additives are being developed in order to improve the performance of polymers during their processing, production and use as plastic packages, indispensable elements for industrialized food conservation. Restrictions relative to chemical characteristics and quantity of the additives that can be used in the packages were established in order to protect the consumers since many of the additives used in plastic packages can be limited by sanitary restrictions and the contact of the foodstuff with the packages can allow the migration of the constituents of the package in concentrations above the allowed limits. PVC films are employed to package a broad variety of foodstuffs. These films have a large amount of additives (plasticizers). So, it is very important the possibility of new plasticizers for the Brazilian market as well as the evaluation of the conformity of these packaging materials. DEHA, epoxidized soil bean oil, ATBC and polymeric plasticizers, which shall be studied in this project, are employed in plastic packages for food (the last two plasticizers are used mainly in Europe due to the high cost) and are not hard to find them in packages available in the market. Beside these plasticizers, two new plasticizers from renewable resource - mixture of glycerin acetates and glycerol monoester, and a plasticizer used in the toy sector - DEHT, will be evaluated as plasticizers for stretch PVC films intended to be in contact with foodstuffs. So, this study will focus on the development and validation of methods for determination of specific migration of the main and new plasticizers used in PVC films in contact with acid and oil food simulants, besides the evaluation of the conformity of PVC films for food contact acquired in the market in relation to specific migration limit. (AU)