A Critical Survey of Predictive Mathematical Models for Migration from Packaging

Abstract

The migration of chemicals from food contact materials into foods is an important issue in food safety. The assessment of materials compliance with regulations includes migration monitoring for many monomers and additives. However, it is recognized that predictive mathematical modelling can be used in many cases, to avoid or to reduce the effort on migration experiments. This article reviews the approaches followed to apply mathematical models to migration, particularly the models used, the approaches to estimate model parameters, and the systems used to experimentally validate the models. Conclusions on the issues requiring further research are drawn.

Six open questions about the migration of engineered nano-objects from polymer-based food-contact materials: a review

“…Classically, Fick's Laws of Diffusion is applied to predict the diffusion of small molecules through the polymer, which depends on the concentration gradient, solubility of the migrant in the polymer, and the contact liquid, temperature, shape and polarity of the migrant, as well as other additives that may be present in the polymer matrix (Pillai et al 2014). Furthermore, a number of semi-empirical models have been developed to estimate migration from FCMs to food (Begley et al 2005;Poças et al 2008).…”

Interacciones empaque-alimento: migración

“…El uso de modelos matemáticos para predecir el comportamiento de la migración puede reducir gran cantidad de pruebas y ensayos de laboratorio que suelen ser largos y dispendiosos [21].…”

“…Para el caso en el que el proceso de migración es controlado por el mecanismo de difusión del migrante a través del material de empaque y, además, el migrante esté bien distribuido en el alimento [21], se pueden usar el modelo de Piringer (Ec. 6) y el modelo de FDA (Ec.…”

Use of herbs, spices and their bioactive compounds in active food packaging

“…Most of these models were based on Fick's laws and helped in the assessment of compliance with specific migration limits and described the effective transport of migrating species with time 103 . Modifications in diffusion coefficients of additive molecules through the polymer structure can be related with formation/rupture of hydrogen bonds, hydrophobic and/or electrostatic interactions.…”