Study of the chemical safety of food contact materials and evaluation of new active materials

Abstract

The first and most important function of packaging is the protection of food products. Plastic materials, due to their properties, are widely used in food packaging applications, however, they can transfer their components to the food, affecting negatively the health of the consumer and the quality of the food. On the other hand, these types of materials can generate environmental problems. Biodegradable polymers have been developed as an alternative to these conventional materials, with functionality in many cases similar to that of traditional plastics and a wide variety of applications. Due to its advantages, they have been used for several years in the manufacture of active materials, such as antimicrobial packaging. The main objectives of this thesis are firstly, to address the study of the chemical safety of some plastic materials used in food packaging by developing analytical methodologies to identify potential migrants and then evaluate the migration to food and food simulants. The second objective includes the development and evaluation of antibacterial films based on biopolymers and different antibacterial agents. This thesis has been divided into two large sections. Firstly, an extensive literature review of three of the main groups of contaminants present in plastic packaging materials such as phthalates, alternative plasticizers and photoinitiators is presented, addressing the main analytical techniques for their determination in food, food simulants and polymers. The following chapters describe the development of analytical methodologies by GC-MS and P&T-GC-MS for the non-target analysis, for the determination of volatile and semivolatiles unknown compounds present in different types of plastic materials, as well as for the determination of the migration of some of these compounds to different matrices such as food and food simulants by different chromatographic techniques such as GC-MS and HPLC-MS/MS. It also includes the study of the migration kinetics in different food simulants of three additives commonly used in plastic materials: ATBC, DBP and BHT. The second part contains a bibliographic review of antimicrobial packaging based on biodegradable materials, which includes biopolymers based on renewable resources, those synthesized chemically from natural sources and biopolymers synthesized by microorganisms, as well as the antibacterial agents incorporated in them and their mode of action. The last chapter is devoted to the development and evaluation of the antibacterial activity of biodegradable films.