Migration assessment and the 'threshold of toxicological concern' applied to the safe design of an acrylic adhesive for food-contact laminates.

The suitability of an acrylic adhesive used on food packaging was studied. Six potential migrants were identified using GC-MS and UPLC-QTOF. Five compounds were intentionally added (2-butoxyethanol and 2,4,7,9-tetramethyl-5-decyne-4,7-diol 10 (TMDD) and TMDD ethoxylates). One of the compounds identified as 2-(12-(methacryloyloxy) dodecyl)malonic acid was a non -intentionally added substance (NIAS), which could be a methyl metacrylate derivative. A migration study from multilayers containing paper-adhesive-film was carried out. The films used were polyethylene (PE), polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polylactic acid (PLA) and Ecovio F2223®, which is a mixture of biodegradable polyester with PLA. All the non-volatile compounds, including the identified NIAS, migrated into the dry food simulant Tenax ®. Five surfactants based on TMDD were found to migrate from all laminates into Tenax at levels from 0.05 to 0.6 mg kg