EN 1186 Tests of Substances and Materials in Contact with Food Plastics

Food contact materials are materials intended to be in contact with food. These can be very open items such as a glass or a can for soft drinks, as well as items from a food factory or a coffee machine. These food contact materials are produced from various materials such as plastic, rubber, paper, coatings or metal. In most cases a combination is also used. For example, a cardboard box for fruit juices can contain plastic sheeting, aluminum, paper, printing and surface coating from the inside out.

Food contact materials can be grouped as follows:

• Cooking utensils: pots, cookware, pans, trays, teapot and the like
• Tableware: cutlery, drinking equipment, plates, glassware, ceramic items and the like
• Products for children and babies: cutlery sets, feeding equipment, feeding bottles, teats and the like
• Food packaging products: containers, bottles, boxes and the like
• Food processing equipment: knives, conveyors, hoses and the like
• Food processing materials: adhesives, caps, gloves, filters and the like

Foodstuffs come into contact with many materials during production, processing, storage, preparation and presentation before being offered to consumers. Such materials and objects are called food contact materials. These materials come into contact with food in two ways:

• The materials are intended for contact with food. So it is already in contact with food.
• Ingredients can be reasonably contacted with food or transfer their ingredients to food under normal or foreseeable use.

This second case involves direct or indirect contact. For example, containers used for transporting food, food processing machines, packaging materials, kitchenware and tableware. The components of these materials must be inert in terms of both adversely affecting consumer health and not affecting the quality of food. A number of legal regulations are in force in the European Union countries to ensure the safety of materials that come into contact with food. According to these regulations, the ingredients must not release their ingredients into the food at levels harmful to human health and change the composition, taste and odor of the food in an unacceptable way.

Food contact materials may contain chemicals that, if ingested by the consumer in unsafe quantities, may pass from the material itself to the foodstuff, creating health concerns. Food contact materials play an important role in preventing foodstuff damage or spoilage and are essential throughout the food chain. Therefore, their safety needs to be carefully evaluated to prevent exposure to potentially hazardous substances and to protect the health of the consumer.

Except for foreign objects, previously food contact materials were not generally seen as a source of food safety concern. However, in recent years, various problems with food contact materials have affected the food supply and have attracted the attention of businesses and consumers.

The potential physical, microbiological, chemical and allergen hazards associated with food contact materials and their risk factors vary according to the type of wood, metal or plastic material.

The EN 1186 standards series published by the Turkish Standards Institute (TSE) in our country consists of the following sections:

• Part 1: Conditions and selection of test methods for the determination of substances in foods. This standard makes recommendations on the selection of the most appropriate test type, test conditions and test method of a plastic article for a particular application. For many plastic articles, the methods in the standards EN 1186-2 to EN 1186-9 are suitable, depending on the form in which the article is tested.
• Part 2: Test methods for total migration into olive oil by full immersion. This standard describes test methods for determining the general transition from plastic materials and articles to fatty food simulants. During the tests, test samples are dipped into an oily food simulant at temperatures above 20 degrees and up to 100 degrees (except 100 degrees). This test method is best suited for plastics in the form of films and sheets.
• Part 3: Test methods for total migration to aqueous food simulants by full immersion. This standard describes a test method for determining the general transition from plastics intended to come into contact with foodstuffs to aqueous-based food simulants by total immersion in an aqueous food simulant for 40 days, 10 hours or 24 hours at 2 degrees, or 70 hours at 2 degrees. This test method is best suited for plastics in the form of films and sheets.
• Part 4: Test methods for total migration to olive oil by cell. With the test method described in this standard, the total amount of material migrated by exposing one surface of plate or film-shaped plastics that are in contact with fatty foods in a standard cell or equivalent cell for 40 degrees 10 days, 24 hours or 2 hours or 70 hours at 2 degrees. is determined.
• Part 5: Test methods for total migration by cell to aqueous food simulants. This standard describes a test method for determining general migration by exposure to aqueous-based food simulants from a surface of sheet and film-shaped plastics intended to come into contact with foodstuffs only. During the tests, the food contact surface is exposed to the selected food simulant at 40 degrees for 10 days, 24 hours or 2 hours or 70 hours at 2 degrees in a cell and the total migration amount to water-based food simulants from only one surface of the plastics is determined. This test method is best suited for plastics in the form of films and sheets.
• Part 6: Test methods for total migration to olive oil using a bag. This standard describes a test method for determining general migration by exposure in a bag from a surface of sheet and film-shaped plastics intended to come into contact with fatty foodstuffs. During the tests, the food contact surface is exposed to the selected food simulant in a cell for 40 days, 10 hours or 24 hours at 2 degrees or 70 hours at 2 degrees, and the total migration amount from only one surface of the plastics is determined. This test method is best suited for plastics in the form of films and sheets.
• Part 7: Determination of substances in aqueous foods - Bag method. This standard describes test methods for determining the general transition from plastics intended to come into contact with foodstuffs to aqueous-based food simulants at temperatures up to 70 degrees by forming the plastic film or sheet in standard bags and filling it with a selected food simulant.
• Part 8: Test methods for total migration to olive oil by product filling. This standard describes a test method for determining the total migration from a surface of plastics in the form of finished products intended to come into contact with an oily foodstuff by filling the finished product with olives. In these tests, test samples are kept for 40 days, 10 hours or 24 hours at 2 degrees or 70 hours at 2 degrees. This test method is suitable for testing non-homogeneous objects as long as they are not too large. This method is most suitable for plastics in the form of refillable containers and articles.
• Part 9: Test methods for total migration to aqueous food simulants by product filling. This standard describes a test method for determining the general transition from plastics intended to come into contact with foodstuffs to aqueous-based food simulants by filling items with aqueous food simulants for 10 days, 24 hours or 2 hours at 40 degrees and 2 hours at 70 degrees. This method is most suitable for plastics in the form of refillable containers and articles.
• Part 10: Test methods for total migration to olive oil (modified method used in cases where olive oil extraction cannot be fully performed). This standard describes test methods for determining general migration from plastic materials and articles to fatty food simulants by completely immersing test samples in fatty food simulants at any temperature above 175 degrees up to 5 degrees for selected times.
• Part 11: Determination of substances that pass to 14C-labeled artificial triglycerides. This standard describes test methods for determining the general transition from plastic materials and articles to a mixture of 20C labeled synthetic triglycerides to fatty food simulants at temperatures above 121 degrees and for selected times up to 121 degrees (including 14 degrees). These methods are suitable for plastics and refillable containers and articles in the form of films and sheets.
• Part 12: Test methods for total migration at low temperatures. This standard describes test methods for determining total migration from plastics intended to come into contact with foodstuffs at low temperatures, at 1 degrees for half an hour, 2 hour, 24 hours, 10 hours and 5 days, or 20 degrees. These test methods are suitable for a wide variety of forms of plastic samples.
• Part 13: Test methods for total migration at elevated temperatures. This standard describes test methods for determining the general transition from plastic materials and articles to fatty food simulants by completely immersing test samples in a fatty food simulant at selected times, including 100 to 175 degrees.
• Part 14: Total migration test methods for "substitution tests" from plastics intended to come into contact with fatty foods, using test media with iso-octane and 95 percent ethanol. This standard describes test methods for substitution tests performed with volatile test media, iso-octane and 95 percent aqueous ethanol to determine total migration from plastics intended to come into contact with oily foodstuffs at all temperatures and for any period of time.
• Part 15: Alternative test methods for migration to fatty food simulants by rapid extraction to iso-octane and / or 95 percent ethanol. This standard describes two alternative test methods for assessing overall migration to fatty food simulants, an extraction test with a more severe test character.

Mainly, the safety of food contact materials is evaluated by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The safety of these materials should be provided by the businesses that put them on the market. Official controls are carried out and tested by the competent authorities of the European Union countries. With these controls and tests, the following points are aimed for materials that come into contact with food:

• Protecting the health of consumers
• To ensure the effective functioning of the internal market

Briefly, food contact materials are defined as follows:

• Intended to come into contact with food
• Already in contact with food and intended for this purpose
• Reasonably expected to come into contact with food or transfer its ingredients to food under normal or foreseeable use.

Our organization, among numerous testing, measurement, analysis and evaluation studies, with its trained and expert staff and advanced technological equipment, provides testing services within the scope of EN 1186 Food contact materials and products plastics standards series within the framework of national and international standards.