Unintended substances in food contact materials (NIAS) represent a potential safety problem for the food packaging industry. In advanced laboratories, testing and analysis studies are carried out to scan, define and measure NIAS to evaluate the safety and suitability of materials or articles.
-taramasi.jpg "Intentionally Unadded Substances (NIAS) Screening for Food Contact Substances")
Non-intentionally added substances (NIAS) are chemical compounds found in materials that come into contact with food, which can therefore pass into food, but are not added for a technical reason during the production process. The existence of these substances is often not known to the consumer or even the manufacturer. This is not a new topic, but awareness of this topic has increased in recent years due to increased sensitivity in chemical analysis.
Unintended substances come from different sources and include decomposition products of food contact materials, impurities of starting materials, unwanted by-products and various contaminants from recycling processes. Decomposition products break down into degradation products from polymers, processing aids and additives. By-products can result from the manufacturing process as well as from chemical reactions between the food and its packaging.
Thus, these substances can enter the production chain at any level (for example, during the chemical synthesis of raw materials and the manufacture of final containers and materials). In general, only compounds above 1000 Da are considered NIAS because substances with higher molecular weights are considered inert to migration. Therefore, compounds less than 1000 Da are not further identified during the NIAS analysis.
Four different sources are known today for unintentional substances:
Improvements in analytical methods enable the detection of more unintentional substances in the production process. The manufacturing process itself or the transition to a food simulant (solid or liquid) is analyzed to identify possible unintentional substances.
Our organization, among the numerous test, measurement, analysis and evaluation studies it provides for businesses in various sectors, also provides testing services for non-intentionally added substances (NIAS) for food contact materials, with its trained and expert staff and advanced technological equipment.
To get an appointment, to get more detailed information or to request an evaluation, you can ask us to fill in our form and reach you.
