Analytical protocol to study the food safety of (multiple-)recycled high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) crates: Influence of recycling on the migration and formation of degradation products

An analytical protocol was set up and successfully applied to study the food safety of recycled HDPE and PP crates. A worst-case scenario was applied that focused not only on overall migration and specific migration of accepted starting materials but also on migratable degradation products of polymers and additives that may be formed during mechanical recycling.The analytical protocol was set up to cover a wide variety of possible migrants. Identification and semi-quantification were possible for almost all migrants that increased significantly with increasing mechanical recycling steps for both the HDPE and PP crates.It was concluded that the analytical protocol was suitable to study the influence of (multiple) recycling on the food safety of plastic materials. The protocol can be applied to other plastic food contact materials and provides valuable information on the food safety of the recycling process and the resulting recycled food contact materials in addition to challenge testing.