Investigations on the migration behaviour of silicone moulds in contact with different foodstuffs

Ruediger Helling (1) , Katja Kutschbach (2) , Thomas Joachim Simat (2)

1 Saxon Institute for Public and Veterinary Health
2 Food Chemistry [Dresden]

Different foodstuffs were prepared in silicone baking moulds and were analyzed for siloxane migration using a previously developed and validated ¹H-NMR method. Meatloaf was found to be a critical foodstuff which may significantly exceed of the overall migration limit of 60 mg kg^-1 (10 mg sdm^-1) in the first as well as in the third experiment. The highest siloxane migration found in a meatloaf after preparation in a commercial mould was 177 mg kg^-1. In contrast, milk-based food showed only very low or non detectable migration (< 2.4 mg kg^-1) even if consisting of higher fat amounts. Similar results were achieved when using 50% ethanol as the official simulant for milk-based products as defined in the Plastics Directive 2007/19/EEC. After solvent extraction of the moulds simulating long term usage, no further migration into the food was detectable, indicating that there is no relevant formation of low molecular weight, potentially migrating siloxanes from the elastomer. During repeated usage the investigated moulds showed a high uptake of fat during the use of up to 8.0 g fat per kg elastomer. The proper tempering of the moulds exhibited a major influence on the migration properties of siloxanes into different foodstuffs. Non-tempered moulds with a high level of volatile organic compounds of 1.1 % were shown to give considerably higher migration than the equivalent tempered moulds.

Mots clés: Life Sciences

Ruediger Helling, Katja Kutschbach, Thomas Joachim Simat. Investigations on the migration behaviour of silicone moulds in contact with different foodstuffs. Food Additives and Contaminants, 2010, 27 (03), pp.396-405. ⟨10.1080/19440040903341869⟩. ⟨hal-00573083⟩