Printing inks for food packaging. Study of the key parameters in the migration of photoinitiators

Abstract

Since 50s, the UV curing inks began to substitute the classical solvent inks, further more contaminant for the consumer and the environment. Nevertheless, since 2005, when the Italian authorities found ITX in baby milk from these inks, they have become a world food safety concern. The main objective of this thesis is to broaden the knowledge about the migration of photoinitiators and their byproducts into food. To deal with this problem, this thesis is divided in three parts. Firstly, a photoinitiators' food safety review is presented, explaining the photoinitiators' problematique and the possible strategies to deal with this food safety problem. Then, the different analytical methodologies for the determination of photoinitiators and byproducts developed are described: LC-DAD, GC-MS, LC-ESI-MS/MS, UHPLC/ESI-HRMS e DART-HRMS. Finally, migration kinetics studies have been carried out in order to study the migration of photoinitiators into food simulants at different temperatures from LDPE. From the data obtained a mathematical model was developed in order to predict the migration of these molecules into food.