TABLE OF CONTENTS Plastics are now being used on a large scale for the packaging of fatty and aqueous foodstuffs and beverages, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. This is evident for all to see on the supermarket shelf, namely margarine packed in polystyrene tubs, wine and beer in polyvinylchloride (PVC) bottles, and meats and bacon in shrink wrap film. As well as at the point of sale, foods are increasingly being shipped in bulk in plastic containers. Additionally, there is the area of use of plastics utensils, containers and processing equipment in the home and during bulk preparation of food in processing factories, at home and in restaurants and canteens.
Contact between plastics and package commodities also occurs in the products of the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries and similar considerations apply to these. Where direct contact occurs between the packaged commodity and the container, it is likely that transfer will occur of polymer additives, adventitious impurities such as monomers, oligomers, catalyst remnants and residual polymerisation solvents and of low molecular weight polymer fractions from the plastic into the package material with the consequent risk of a toxic hazard to the consumer. The actual hazard arising to the consumer from any extractable material is a function of two properties, namely the intrinsic toxicity of the extracted material as evaluated in animal feeding trials (not dealt with in this book) and the amount of extracted from the polymer which enters the packed commodity under service conditions, i.e., during packaging operations and during the shelf...
