it is not apparent when looking at a microwavable bowl of chinese soup or a wrapped lettuce. however, plastic food packaging is created of various layers that are designed to act as an obstacle for bacteria or oxygen. olivier vitrac is a researcher at the national institute of agricultural research&rsquos inraagroparistech research unit genial joint. this unit is located in massy, near paris. according to olivier, each of these coatings is developed by a different manufacturer. then too, at the end of the chain, the sole responsible for food safety is the food manufacturer who sells the packaged product. researchers have been resolving the issue of such likely harmful molecules scattering from one layer to the next in food packaging, vulnerable to eventually contaminate the food. under the safefoodpackdesign project, this work has been done. this project is financed by the french national research agency anr and coordinated by vitrac. food packaging is aimed at preserving the content as safe and fresh as possible. it&rsquos another function is to add the attractiveness in the product in order to tempt customers by using colourful prints. the difficulty is that this aspect needs the use of potentially injurious molecules such as antioxydisers, antiultraviolet radiations, pigments and glue from inks. these materials have been suspected&mdashalthough not always proven firmly&mdashof being accountable for triggering cancers. as they contain substances like bisphenol a, they have also been indicted of endocrine disruption. recently in france, this hormonelike chemical has been forbidden. it has also been the aim of the eu financed endoceval project, which intends at checking new packaging which are free from bisphenol a. the safefoodpackdesign project objective is to construct tools to assist packaging producers assess the diffusion dangers of potentially injurious molecules, at every phase of the packaging&39s life from producing to final use, including storage and transport. as an instance, piling up plastic cups that are designed to hold, say, chinese soup, consequences in putting the inked outer layer in direct contact with the inner layer of the cup immediately beneath. therefore, ink molecules drift towards the inner layer, which will finally be in contact with the food. vitrac explains that in such case, the most decisive step about chemical risk is with no doubt storage. the primary assignment of the project team has been to assemble a database of materials that are used for packaging to document their content of molecular. currently, with the intention of building predictive models, they are calculating the diffusion velocity of these molecules. peter mercea works in fabes, which a german company that is specialized in evaluating and testing migration of essences from packaging into foods. peter says that creating migration models can be tough in the case of a multilayer packaging that contains various chemicals in relation with nonhomogeneous food. he further warns that the input information available to provide for the model, such as food and packaging composition, is not always accurate. by the end of this year, the project team is likely to have developed opensource software, which will be based on an approach that is used in aeronautics named failure mode effects and criticality analysis, also familiar with the initials as fmeca, to identify every decisive point on the lifecycle of packaging where contamination could take place. a first version of this software is available in the market. this new tool has the ability to change the approach plastic food packaging is handled and designed. currently, the eu framework regulation on food contact materials ec no 19352004 mentions that packaging must not transmit chemicals to food in amount that may create a risk to human health and modify significantly the organoleptic characteristics and composition of the food. daniel ribera works in biotox, which is a consultancy specialized in environmental risk and sanitary assessment. daniel explains that this instruction is already strict and every new packaging must be proved separately safe before entering the marketplace. however, this regulation clarifies nothing regarding storage and transport and other likely critical points. he further says that, along with this, safefoodpackdesign can help evaluate the related risks, it will give a real increase in protection for producers and therefore for consumers. source of information httpphys.orgnews201304reliablepackagingchemicalfreefood.html
