EN 1186-1 Plastic Materials in Contact with Foodstuffs - Part 1: Guidance on Selection of Conditions and Test Methods for General Migration

Material Testing

EN 1186-1 Plastic Materials in Contact with Foodstuffs - Part 1: Guidance on Selection of Conditions and Test Methods for General Migration

EUROLAB laboratory provides testing and compliance services within the scope of EN 1186-1 standard. This part of the EN 1186 standard provides a guide for the selection of appropriate conditions and test methods for determining the overall migration from plastics intended to come into contact with foodstuffs to food simulants and test environments.

EN 1186-1 Plastic Materials in Contact with Foodstuffs - Part 1: Guidance on Selection of Conditions and Test Methods for General Migration

No single test method has been designed that can be used to determine overall migration in all food simulants at all temperatures. Indeed, due to the practical difficulties inherent in testing with volatile extractors such as oils and the multitude of applications where plastic items come into contact with food, there are many methods and variations in methods that are permitted in this standard.

EN 1186-1 is intended to advise on the selection of the most suitable test type, test conditions and test method for a given plastic article application and is intended to be read in its entirety before the test protocols are finalized. For most plastic articles, the methods in EN 1186-2 to EN 1186-9 are suitable, depending on the form in which the article is tested. The following parts of this standard are intended for use with the methods in EN 1186-2 to EN 1186-9 for more difficult samples and other temperatures.

Laboratories using this standard are encouraged to validate their procedures by testing certified reference samples and participating in a qualification program. Samples of reference plastics with well-defined values ​​for general migration into oily food-like olive oil were prepared as part of a program supported by the European Commission's Standards, Measurement and Testing Program, DG XII.

Transport Tests

Migration tests to determine overall migration are performed using food analogs and conventional migration test conditions.

Substitution Tests

If migration testing using fatty food analogs is not possible for technical reasons associated with the test method, substitution testing using test media under conventional substitution test conditions may be appropriate.

Substitution tests involve the use of the entire substitution test medium, 95% ethanol, iso-octane, and modified polyphenylene oxide in aqueous solution, under test conditions corresponding to the test conditions for simulant D. Reduction factors, 2 to 5, apply to these substitution tests. To determine compliance with the overall migration limit, the highest value obtained using all test media is selected.

Alternative Tests

The results of alternative tests using volatile test media such as 95% ethanol or other volatile solvents or solvent mixtures in iso-octane and aqueous solution may be used to demonstrate compliance with the statutory limit, provided that:

The result obtained in a comparison test indicates that the value is equal to or greater than the values ​​obtained in the migration test with a fatty food simulant;
Migration in the alternative test does not exceed the overall migration limit after application of appropriate reducing factors.

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