Commercial sunflower oil was epoxidised and used as organic co-stabiliser for rigid and plasticised poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) containing Zn and Ca stearates as primary stabilisers and stearic acid as lubricant. For applications in the packaging of foodstuffs, migration testing must be performed. The detection and the quantification of contaminants migrating from the polymer into the food simulants are essential for the safety assessment of food contact plastic packaging materials. For that purpose, two food simulants were used: olive oil and 15% (v/v) aqueous ethanol. These represent fatty and moist food and beverages, respectively. The test conditions were 12 days at 40 deg C. Circular samples of rigid PVD and PVC plasticised with dioctyl phthalate were immersed in a known food simulant & a sample & 10ml food simulants were taken every day to be analysed.
