Food-contact materials

Food-contact materials are materials and articles intended to touch food during preparation, processing, storage, transport, or service. Their composition and use can affect food through the transfer of substances or physical changes.

Migration (food contact): The transfer of substances from a food-contact material into food or its surrounding environment. It is the main pathway by which a material can alter food chemically.
Food packaging: Materials and systems used to contain, protect, preserve, and distribute food. It is the broadest practical setting in which food-contact materials are selected.
Food packaging migration testing: Laboratory testing that measures substances transferred from packaging into food or a test medium. It evaluates whether a package remains suitable under defined use conditions.
Food-contact substance: A substance used in a material or article that may become a component of food through contact. It is the chemical constituent assessed within a finished contact material.
Diffusion: The net movement of particles from regions of higher concentration to regions of lower concentration. It can carry small molecules through a material toward food.
Food-grade material: A material suitable for a specified food-contact use under defined conditions. Suitability depends on intended conditions, not simply a universal grade.
Active packaging: Packaging designed to interact with food or its environment to extend shelf life or maintain quality. Its intended interaction makes controlled release and migration central design concerns.
Food additive: A substance intentionally added to food for a technological purpose. Unlike most material constituents, it is added directly to food for a defined function.
Partition coefficient: A ratio describing how a compound distributes between two phases at equilibrium. It helps determine whether a migrant favors the material or the food.
Polymer: A substance made of molecules composed of repeating structural units. Many food-contact articles are plastics built from polymers.

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