Analysis of migrants from nylon 6 packaging films into boiling water

Ultra-violet spectrophotometry (UV), high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectroscopy (LC-MS) were used to identify and quantify oligomers extracted with boiling water from two different nylon 6 films used in boil-in-bag food packaging. The results indicated the loss of up to 1.5% of the original nylon film weight, into the boiling water, as caprolactam and cyclic oligomers up to the nonamer. Extraction time, thickness and type of film used, were found to be parameters which affected the levels of these migrants. These results will be relevant to situations in which food is cooked in the water used to heat the pouch contents.