The UK has pronounced news of a new scanner being developed that defects and measures the transfer and migration of recently adopted printing ink components that are used in food packaging.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has revealed the conclusion of a project in order to develop screening tests for so-called ‘set-off’.
The terms ‘set off’ are defined as “the unintentional transfer of substances used in printing inks from the printed (outer) surface of materials and articles intended for food packaging to the inner food contact surface”.
The organisation said it commissioned the research after the ink producers supplying into the packaging industry started widespread introducing polymeric photoinitiators which are used in printing inks to increase the speed of the drying process of the ink using ultra violet light and synergists which take part in the photoinitiator reaction.
The process came about after the chemical 2-Isopropylthioxanthone (ITX) was discovered in milk and beverages packed in multi-layer cartons about eight years ago and became a cause for concern. Therefore, set off was thought of as a likely cause.
The FSA noticed the scarcity of published data on the extent of transfer of these new compounds to food contact surfaces via set off and their subsequent migration into food.
Done by Pira International for almost three years, the research project was designed to have three aims.
It was, firstly, made to develop screening techniques enabled with measuring the amount of set-off from the replacement substances and other ink components on food contact surfaces of packaging visible to the naked eye.
The FSA succeeded in developing the scanner in order to measure present set off in food contact surfaces in packaging that was suitable for regulators and industry players.
The agency also became in successful in developing exposure techniques and analytical methods to quantify individual ink components on food contact surfaces to allow for the measurement of non-visible set off.
This became the reason for the development of a list that names the commonly used photoinitiators and synergists to identify and measure the necessary compounds.
The above method also consisted of techniques for unseen elements. According to the research, it was satisfactory in terms of validity despite the challenges in copying exactly the same ‘set off’ patterns which were a result of commercial storage pressures on packaging.
The agency said: “[The] results tended to demonstrate that set off is not a food safety issue because of the low levels of printing ink components found to set off from the prepared films”.
The third, and final, target was to examine the migration of ink components from specially prepared films in a variety of foods.
These films have a particular type of know ink compositions at higher levels than commercial applications.
The objective of the investigation is to promote set off to test developed methods and allow comparison of data and also did not involve the testing of food packaging.
This method can carried out and tested in one working day to help laboratories identify photoinitiators and synergists on unused packaging and estimate the cast case migration for shelf life applications of six months or more at room temperature.
The agency also said they intend to discuss the methodology with industry players and used it to inform future work on food packaging where set off could occur.
They added: “The project will enable laboratories to identify printing ink components on unused food packaging, estimate worst case migration and thereby assist in the prevention of packaging transferring components to foods at undesirable levels”.