Tailoring fatty food simulants made from solvent mixtures (2): determining the equivalent migration behaviour of olive oil and of solvents in the case of polyolefins.

It is suggested that solvent mixtures consisting of an ester and of an inert solvent can be used as fatty food simulants capable of having the same migration behaviour as olive oil with plastics. Migration tests carried out with low-density polyethylene for 20 and 48 h in an 8 and 5% mixture of tert-butyl acetate in ethanol respectively gave results equivalent to those obtained with olive oil after 10 days at 40 degrees C. The use of solvent mixtures facilitated the analysis and improved detection limits, giving good repeatability. Furthermore, the more rapid migration in solvent mixtures can be particularly useful for industrial controls as alternative test methods.