A model for estimating the migration of organic substances from plastic materials into foodstuffs has been previously developed. The use of this model allows a shift away from expensive and time consuming migration analysis in foods to much simpler and more economic compositional analysis in the material. Starting with toxicologically-based specific migration values, like the over 400 specific migration limit values for organic substances listed in the European Union's Synoptic Document No. 7, the corresponding allowable maximum quantity limits of these substances in the plastic were calculated. The amount of migration that can occur depends on many different factors such as the natures of the plastic, substance and food, contact time and temperature conditions, material thickness and number of uses. These factors can result in a variety of situations which must be taken into account in the estimation of migration. The handling of the migration estimation model is demonstrated for several practical migration scenarios using a series of case studies.

The amounts of substances migrating from plastics into foodstuffs with high fat contents are in most cases higher than in foodstuffs with water contents. This increase in migration commonly is due to the higher solubility of the migrating organic compounds in fat compared to water. The increase in migration is not necessarily due to an increase in the substance's diffusion coefficient due to interactions between the fat and the plastic as is often assumed. Ethanol is a good simulant for fatty foods because it has little interaction with many plastics, e.g. polyolefins, migrants are readily soluble in it, and because it is easy to work with analytically. The utilizable limits of ethanol and ethanol/water mixtures as food simulants are developed from the physical background of diffusion. The use of ethanol and ethanol/water mixtures is supported by published experimental migration results.

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