Plastic Materials and Articles in Contact with Food Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998

Part VII Alternative Fat Tests for Overall and Specific Migration

1.  Subject to paragraph 2 the conditions which must be fulfilled to allow the result of either of the migration tests specified in paragraph 3 to be used as an alternative to the result of a migration test carried out under Part III are—

(a) the result obtained in a “comparison test” shows that the values are equal or greater than those obtained in the test with simulant D; and

(b) the migration occurring in either test specified in paragraph 3 does not, after application of the appropriate reduction factor, exceed the appropriate migration limit.

2.  The condition in sub-paragraph (a) of paragraph 1 does not have to be fulfilled if it can be shown on the basis of the result of scientific experiment that the values obtained in either of the migration tests specified in paragraph 3 are equal to or greater than those obtained in any of the migration tests specified in Part III.

3.  The migration tests referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 are—

(a) a test carried out using volatile media including isooctane, ethanol 95%, other volatile solvents or a mixture of solvents at such contact conditions as would result in values equal or greater than those obtained in a test using simulant D;

(b) other tests using media having a very strong extraction power under very severe test conditions where, on the basis of scientific evidence, it is generally recognised that the results using these tests are equal to or higher than those obtained in a test using simulant D.