TY - JOUR T1 - Modeling the migration of chemicals from food contact materials to food: The MERLIN-expo/VERMEER toolbox JF - Food and Chemical Toxicology Y1 - 2022 A1 - P., Ciffroy A1 - Birgit Mertens A1 - Els Van Hoeck A1 - Ilse Van Overmeire A1 - E., Johansson A1 - B., Alfonso A1 - D., Baderna A1 - G., Selvestrel A1 - E., Benfenati KW - food contact material KW - Migration model KW - Uncertainty analysis AB -

Evaluating the migration of chemicals from food contact materials (FCM) into food is a key step in the safety assessment of such materials. In this paper, a simple mechanistic model describing the migration of chemicals from FCM to food was combined with quantitative property-property relationships (QPPRs) for the prediction of diffusion coefficients and FCM-Food partition coefficients. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the performance of these operational models in the prediction of a chemical's concentration in food in contact with a plastic monolayer FCM. A comparison to experimental migration values reported in literature was conducted. Deterministic simulations showed a good match between predicted and experimental values. The tested models can be used to provide insights in the amount and the type of toxicological data that are needed for the safety evaluation of the FCM substance. Uncertainty in QPPRs used for describing the processes of both diffusion in FCM and partition at the FCM-Food interface was included in the analysis. Combining uncertainty in QPPR predictions, it was shown that the third quartile (75th percentile) derived from probabilistic calculations can be used as a conservative value in the prediction of chemical concentration in food, with reasonable safety factors.

VL - 166 M3 - 10.1016/j.fct.2022.113118 ER -