title: Partition coefficients in food/packaging systems: a review.
abstract: Food contamination can result from various interactions between food and packaging materials. Migration of volatiles, additives, monomers and oligomers from packaging materials into food or adsorption of volatile compounds from the food by the polymer are important considerations from safety, hygienic and economic points of view. The term 'migration' includes two phenomena (partition and diffusion) that can be important in determining the concentration of contaminants in a food system at any time. An estimation of the partition coefficient, K, in food/packaging systems has been the major objective of numerous different studies. Various parameters can influence K such as temperature, pH, the chemical structure of the migrant, molecular size and structure, fat content, and degrees of crystallinity. Some theoretical approaches such as the quantitative structure-property relationship method could be of interest in the near future.
authors.affiliation: Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine, Laboratoire de physicochimie & génie alimentaires, ENSAIA, F-54505 Vandoeuvre les Nancy Cedex, France. Elmira.Arab-Therany@ensaia.inpl-nancy.fr
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Tehrany
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Desobry
mesh_terms: D004041:Dietary Fats / Q000032:analysis; D004058:Diffusion; D005504:Food Analysis / Q000379:methods; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D018857:Food Packaging; D006801:Humans; D008970:Molecular Weight; D010969:Plastics / Q000737:chemistry*; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D004041:Dietary Fats; D010969:Plastics