Related Experiment Videos
Antioxidants in food packaging: a risk factor?
1Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, Aston University, Birmingham, U.K.
Biochemical Society Symposium
|January 1, 1995
Summary
New food packaging additives require toxicity testing. Antioxidant transformation products may pose risks, but chemical bonding to polymers or using biological antioxidants like alpha-tocopherol offers safer alternatives.
Area of Science:
- Polymer Science
- Toxicology
- Food Safety
Background:
- Current regulations mandate toxicity testing for all new packaging polymer additives.
- Antioxidants and stabilizers in polymers degrade over time, forming transformation products.
- The toxicity of these transformation products is often unknown and potentially higher than the parent compounds.
Purpose of the Study:
- To address the safety concerns associated with unknown toxicities of antioxidant transformation products in food contact materials.
- To explore novel strategies for mitigating risks associated with packaging polymer additives.
Main Methods:
- Investigating methods to chemically bind antioxidants and stabilizers to the polymer matrix.
- Evaluating the use of biological antioxidants with known toxicological profiles.
Main Results:
- Chemically reacting additives with polymers prevents leaching of both the additive and its transformation products.
- Utilizing biological antioxidants, such as alpha-tocopherol, provides a safer alternative due to well-understood oxidation chemistry and toxicology.
Conclusions:
- Chemical modification of additives or the use of biological antioxidants are promising solutions to enhance food packaging safety.
- These approaches mitigate the risks associated with the unknown toxicity of traditional antioxidant transformation products.