The compliance of more than 60% of packaging or plastic materials in contact with food is tested by calculation. This possibility was introduced into European regulations as early as Directive 2002/72/EC, extended today by EU Regulation No. 10/2011 and its successive amendments.
In the same way as data on transport and thermodynamic properties, data on the composition of materials in contact (substance family, frequency of occurrence, concentration or concentration distribution) strongly affect the relevance of calculation results.
Deformulation techniques rely on the combination of several analytical techniques and methods (FTIR, NMR, GC-MS, HSGC-MS, HPLC-UV, etc.) and data processing (spectral comparison, deconvolution, chemometrics, etc.). A multi-technique approach is necessary to cover the widest possible spectrum of substances and cross-check the results of analysis by different techniques. It is possible to study either the material or a simulant after contact. This approach is only possible with the support of substantial databases containing analysis results for a large number of substances of interest. LNE's databases are evolving over time. At the end of 2019, the internal and external databases used by LNE total 2,200 substances and are distributed mainly for NMR, GC-MS and HSGC-MS techniques.
The development of deformation methods enables us to feed increasingly realistic scenarios incorporating not only declared migrants (IAS) but also potential migrants resulting from reactions or cross-contamination (NIAS). Application examples are numerous, such as the search for NIAS and neoforms, product quality verification, quality monitoring, or the search for a chemical source in a failure by comparing materials to highlight a change in formulation, the identification of a contaminant,
The projects
"FITNess" project: Food packaging open courseware for higher education and staff of companies
"SafeFoodPackDesign" project: Rational design of safe food packaging
Thesis "Development of analytical methods for the identification and quantification of unintentionally added substances in food packaging with a view to their health assessment"
Thesis "Evaluation of the safety and biodegradability of biodegradable biosourced packaging"
Thesis "Engineering food packaging safety"
Thesis "Predicting packaging material compliance by integrating deformation methods and partition coefficient modeling"