Food Packaging Contaminants with a Special Focus on Hydrocarbon Contaminants and Nanoparticles

Food can be contaminated with a wide class of chemicals, including both organic and inorganic compounds also in the form of nanoparticles. Food packaging contaminants can originate either from the food packaging itself or from adhesives and printing inks. Among potential migrants, mineral oil hydrocarbons have gained increasing interest in the past decade, along with resin oligomeric hydrocarbons mainly from hot melt adhesives, polyolefin oligomeric hydrocarbons from polyolefin plastic materials and sealing layer, and nanoform migrants. Because of their negative impact on human health, the release of chemicals from food packaging has raised health and regulatory concerns.