Mineral oil contents in paper and board recycled to paperboard for food packaging

Abstract

Types of paper and board fed into the recycling process to manufacture paperboard for food packaging were analysed for saturated and aromatic mineral oil hydrocarbons. The focus was on the hydrocarbons eluted from gas chromatography before n-C₂₄, as these are relevant for migration into dry foods via the gas phase at ambient temperature. Newspapers and leaflets printed by similar techniques were identified as the predominant sources of mineral oil, whereas office paper, books and corrugated board were the starting materials of lowest mineral oil content. Paperboard produced from the latter sources would contain about five times less mineral oil than the average observed today, but the migration into food could still exceed the limit derived from the available acceptable daily intake by a factor of up to 20. On average, European newspapers produced by offset printing contained 4.1 g/kg <C₂₄ mineral oil with 21% aromatic hydrocarbons. One out of four Japanese newspapers only contained 430 mg/kg <C₂₄ saturated and less than 15 mg/kg aromatic hydrocarbons. However, the maximum migration from paperboard exclusively produced from such newspaper would still far exceed the limit. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.