Set-off of non volatile compounds from printing inks in food packaging materials and the role of lacquers to avoid migration

• Food safety assessment requires migration studies of packaging ink components to food.
• Set-off during manufacturing and storage affects ink components migration.
• 24 migrants coming from inks were found in migration from 2 multilayer materials.
• The number of migrants decreased dramatically when an external lacquer was added.
• Some new migrants appear by the reaction between ink and lacquer.

Inks are commonly used in food packaging materials and therefore, migration of ink components to food must be studied. Migration from different multilayer materials containing inks to 2 food simulants (ethanol 95% and to Tenax®) was performed, the effect of ink transference and how it was affected by the presence of lacquers in the material was studied. A total of 17 migrants coming from inks due to a set-off phenomena were found in migration from multilayer material [ink/PET/aluminum/polyethylene]. The number of migrants decreased dramatically when a lacquer was added [lacquer/ink/PET/aluminum/polyethylene] and especially when ink was placed under a PET layer [lacquer/PET/ink/aluminum/polyethylene]. Some new migrants appear by the reaction between ink and lacquer. In material [ink/paper/OPP/Al/PE], when a lacquer was added some migrants decreased but other migrants present both in lacquer and ink increased.

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