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Dr. Frank Welle
Fraunhofer IVV

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polymer and materials chemistry

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Journal article
Published: 01 July 2021 in Sustainability
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With the European Green Deal, the importance of recycled products and materials has increased. Specifically, for PET bottles, a high content of recycled material (rPET) is demanded by the industry and consumers. This study was carried out in a lab environment replicating real-life industrial processes, to investigate the possible impacts on rPET quality over eleven recycling loops, aiming to use high amounts of rPET repetitively. A cycle included extrusion, solid state polycondensation (SSP), a second extrusion to simulate bottle production, hot wash and a drying step. 75% rPET and 25% virgin PET were extruded in eleven cycles to simulate a recycling and production process. Samples underwent chemical, physical and biological analysis. The quality of the rPET material was not adversely affected. Parameters such as coloring, intrinsic viscosity, concentration of critical chemicals and presence of mutagenic contaminants could be positively assessed. The quality of the produced material was likely influenced by the input material’s high standard. A closed loop PET bottle recycling process using an rPET content of up to 75% was possible when following the proposed process, indicating that this level of recycled content can be maintained indefinitely without compromising quality.

ACS Style

Elisabeth Pinter; Frank Welle; Elisa Mayrhofer; Andreas Pechhacker; Lukas Motloch; Vera Lahme; Andy Grant; Manfred Tacker. Circularity Study on PET Bottle-To-Bottle Recycling. Sustainability 2021, 13, 7370 .

AMA Style

Elisabeth Pinter, Frank Welle, Elisa Mayrhofer, Andreas Pechhacker, Lukas Motloch, Vera Lahme, Andy Grant, Manfred Tacker. Circularity Study on PET Bottle-To-Bottle Recycling. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (13):7370.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Elisabeth Pinter; Frank Welle; Elisa Mayrhofer; Andreas Pechhacker; Lukas Motloch; Vera Lahme; Andy Grant; Manfred Tacker. 2021. "Circularity Study on PET Bottle-To-Bottle Recycling." Sustainability 13, no. 13: 7370.

Journal article
Published: 16 April 2021 in Polymers
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General Purpose Polystyrene (GPPS) and High Impact Polystyrene (HIPS) is used in packaging food as well as for technical products. Knowledge of the diffusion behavior of organic molecules in polystyrene (PS) is important for the evaluation of the diffusion and migration process. Within this study, diffusion coefficients were determined in GPPS and HIPS below and above the glass transition temperature. Diffusion coefficients were determined from desorption kinetics into the gas phase using spiked GPPS and HIPS sheets as well as from permeation kinetics through a thin GPPS film. Overall, 187 diffusion coefficients were determined in GPPS and HIPS at temperatures between 0 °C and 115 °C. From the temperature dependency of the diffusion coefficients 45 activation energies of diffusion EA and the pre-exponential factor D0 were determined. As expected, the activation energies of diffusion EA show a strong dependency from the molecular volume of the investigated substances. At the glass transition temperature, only a slight change of the diffusion behavior were observed. Based on EA and D0, prediction parameters for diffusion coefficients were established.

ACS Style

Frank Welle. Diffusion Coefficients and Activation Energies of Diffusion of Organic Molecules in Polystyrene below and above Glass Transition Temperature. Polymers 2021, 13, 1317 .

AMA Style

Frank Welle. Diffusion Coefficients and Activation Energies of Diffusion of Organic Molecules in Polystyrene below and above Glass Transition Temperature. Polymers. 2021; 13 (8):1317.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Frank Welle. 2021. "Diffusion Coefficients and Activation Energies of Diffusion of Organic Molecules in Polystyrene below and above Glass Transition Temperature." Polymers 13, no. 8: 1317.

Research article
Published: 02 January 2021 in Journal of Consumer Protection and Food Safety
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Materials and articles made of acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene (ABS) intended for contact with food must comply with the requirements of the European Plastic Regulation (EU) 10/2011, which lays down the food simulants and the time/temperature conditions to be applied for migration testing. Previous studies indicated that high concentrations of ethanol at temperatures above ambient may lead to swelling of ABS polymers resulting in increased migration. In this study migration kinetic data for a set of model substances at different temperatures were obtained using both food simulants stipulated in EU regulations and real food (milk, cream and olive oil). At the same time, the extent of polymer swelling was gravimetrically characterized after contact with simulants and different foods tested at several conditions to cover the majority of foreseeable applications of ABS. The obtained results confirmed that the use of high concentrations of ethanol–water, especially at high temperatures, causes the swelling of ABS polymers and results in significantly higher migration values compared to the tested foods as well as Tenax®. None of the real foods studied cause significant swelling of ABS. The widely used simulant 95% (v/v) aqueous ethanol proves not be suitable for compliance testing of ABS under the recommended conditions of Regulation (EU) 10/2011. Swelling of the polymer results in artificially higher diffusion coefficients or lower activation energies of diffusion. Migration prediction using polymer-specific diffusion parameters should therefore be considered to avoid over-conservative risk assessment for food contact materials and articles made of ABS.

ACS Style

Valeria Guazzotti; Annika Ebert; Anita Gruner; Frank Welle. Migration from acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) polymer: swelling effect of food simulants compared to real foods. Journal of Consumer Protection and Food Safety 2021, 16, 19 -33.

AMA Style

Valeria Guazzotti, Annika Ebert, Anita Gruner, Frank Welle. Migration from acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) polymer: swelling effect of food simulants compared to real foods. Journal of Consumer Protection and Food Safety. 2021; 16 (1):19-33.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Valeria Guazzotti; Annika Ebert; Anita Gruner; Frank Welle. 2021. "Migration from acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) polymer: swelling effect of food simulants compared to real foods." Journal of Consumer Protection and Food Safety 16, no. 1: 19-33.

Journal article
Published: 15 December 2020 in Polymers
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Lacking recyclability of multilayer packaging can be overcome by using a thermoreversible crosslinking adhesive consisting of maleimide- and furan-functionalized polyurethane-(PU-)prepolymers, reacting in a Diels–Alder-reaction. Here, the furan-functionalized PU-prepolymer carries furan-side-chains to avoid the usage of an additional crosslinking agent. Thus, N‑(2‑hydroxyethyl)maleimide and furfurylamine are the only two chemicals contained in the adhesive that are not listed in the appendix of EU Regulation 10/2011. Using migration modelling, it could be shown that, at 23 °C, both chemicals have lag-times of only a few minutes if 45 µm PE is used as a barrier. However, if the residual content is below 30 mg/kg, the legally specified maximum amount of 0.01 mg/kg food is not reached. After determining the diffusion coefficients and the activation energy of diffusion through ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer (EVOH), it could be determined that the lag-time of the migrants can be extended to at least 9 years by the use of 3 µm EVOH. From a food law point of view, the use of the described adhesive is possible if the above‑mentioned measures are complied.

ACS Style

Katharina M. A. Kaiser; Johann Ewender; Frank Welle. Recyclable Multilayer Packaging by Means of Thermoreversibly Crosslinking Adhesive in the Context of Food Law. Polymers 2020, 12, 2988 .

AMA Style

Katharina M. A. Kaiser, Johann Ewender, Frank Welle. Recyclable Multilayer Packaging by Means of Thermoreversibly Crosslinking Adhesive in the Context of Food Law. Polymers. 2020; 12 (12):2988.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Katharina M. A. Kaiser; Johann Ewender; Frank Welle. 2020. "Recyclable Multilayer Packaging by Means of Thermoreversibly Crosslinking Adhesive in the Context of Food Law." Polymers 12, no. 12: 2988.

Journal article
Published: 28 October 2020 in Molecules
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PET beverage bottles have been recycled and safely reprocessed into new food contact packaging applications for over two decades. During recollection of post-consumer PET beverage bottles, PET containers from non-food products are inevitably co-collected and thereby enter the PET recycling feed stream. To explore the impact of this mixing on the safety-in-use of recycled PET (rPET) bottles, we determined the concentrations of post-consumer substances in PET containers used for a range of non-food product applications taken from the market. Based on the chemical nature and amounts of these post-consumer substances, we evaluated their potential carry-over into beverages filled in rPET bottles starting from different fractions of non-food PET in the recollection systems and taking worst-case cleaning efficiencies of super-clean recycling processes into account. On the basis of the Threshold of Toxicological Concern (TTC) concept and Cramer classification tools, we present a risk assessment for potential exposure of the consumer to the identified contaminants as well as unidentified, potentially genotoxic substances in beverages. As a result, a fraction of 5% non-food PET in the recycling feed stream, which is very likely to occur in the usual recollection systems, does not pose any risk to the consumer. Our data show that fractions of up to 20%, which may sporadically be contained in certain, local recollection systems, would also not raise a safety concern.

ACS Style

Roland Franz; Frank Welle. Contamination Levels in Recollected PET Bottles from Non-Food Applications and their Impact on the Safety of Recycled PET for Food Contact. Molecules 2020, 25, 4998 .

AMA Style

Roland Franz, Frank Welle. Contamination Levels in Recollected PET Bottles from Non-Food Applications and their Impact on the Safety of Recycled PET for Food Contact. Molecules. 2020; 25 (21):4998.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Roland Franz; Frank Welle. 2020. "Contamination Levels in Recollected PET Bottles from Non-Food Applications and their Impact on the Safety of Recycled PET for Food Contact." Molecules 25, no. 21: 4998.

Research article
Published: 03 August 2020 in Packaging Technology and Science
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Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles were produced from three types of recycled PET (rPET) with four levels of recycled content. The migration of substances from these bottles to water was studied. Several migrated substances were detected. The migrated amounts of acetaldehyde and ethylene glycol complied with the limits given in the food contact material (FCM) legislation. Migration of 2‐methyl‐1,3‐dioxolane was below the limit of 10 μg·L−1, which is conventionally applied for non‐intentionally added substances (NIAS) not classified as ‘carcinogenic’, ‘mutagenic’ or ‘toxic to reproduction’ (CMR). Limonene, acetone, butanone and furan were also detected as migrants, of which limonene is a natural fragrant, and the other three are probably residues from solvents used to clean and protect the mould at the small‐scale production facility. Finally, benzene and styrene were also found as migrants from rPET. These migrants appear to originate from heat‐induced reactions within the PET matrix, which involve contaminants. The formation of benzene in rPET is attributed to polyvinylchloride as contaminant. The migrated amounts of benzene from the PET bottles with recycled content to the water simulant are relatively small (0.03–0.44 μg·L−1) after 10 days at 40°C. Consequently, the margin of exposure is 3.105–8.106. Hence, the level of concern for the public health is low, and the migrated amount represents a low priority for risk management. The FCM legislation demands a risk assessment for migrating NIAS. Depending on the underlying data and exposure scenario, different threshold limits in the food can be derived which can still be considered as safe.

ACS Style

Eggo Ulphard Thoden Van Velzen; Marieke T. Brouwer; Carina Stärker; Frank Welle. Effect of recycled content and rPET quality on the properties of PET bottles, part II: Migration. Packaging Technology and Science 2020, 33, 359 -371.

AMA Style

Eggo Ulphard Thoden Van Velzen, Marieke T. Brouwer, Carina Stärker, Frank Welle. Effect of recycled content and rPET quality on the properties of PET bottles, part II: Migration. Packaging Technology and Science. 2020; 33 (9):359-371.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Eggo Ulphard Thoden Van Velzen; Marieke T. Brouwer; Carina Stärker; Frank Welle. 2020. "Effect of recycled content and rPET quality on the properties of PET bottles, part II: Migration." Packaging Technology and Science 33, no. 9: 359-371.

Review
Published: 02 June 2020 in Beverages
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The packaging of a beverage is an essential element for customer convenience and the preservation of beverage quality. On the other hand, chemical compounds present in the packaging materials, either intentionally added or non-intentionally, may be transferred to the food. With a huge variety of materials used in the production, beverage packaging requires safety assessments with respect to the migration of packaging compounds into the filled beverages. The present article deals with potential migrants from different materials for beverage packaging, including PET bottles, glass bottles, metal cans and cardboard multilayers. The list of migrants comprises monomers and additives, oligomers or degradation products. The article presents a review on scientific literature and summarizes European food regulatory requirements. The review shows no evidence of critical substances migrating from packaging into beverages. Testing the migration in real beverages during and at the end of the shelf life shows compliance with the specific migration limits. Accelerated testing using food simulants, however, shows higher migration in some cases, especially at high temperatures in ethanolic simulants. For some migrants, more realistic testing conditions should be applied in order to show compliance with their specific migration limits.

ACS Style

Petra Schmid; Frank Welle. Chemical Migration from Beverage Packaging Materials—A Review. Beverages 2020, 6, 37 .

AMA Style

Petra Schmid, Frank Welle. Chemical Migration from Beverage Packaging Materials—A Review. Beverages. 2020; 6 (2):37.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Petra Schmid; Frank Welle. 2020. "Chemical Migration from Beverage Packaging Materials—A Review." Beverages 6, no. 2: 37.

Journals
Published: 04 October 2019 in Soft Matter
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Solute diffusion in solid polymers has tremendous applications but remained poorly understood: (i) general solute blob model, (ii) hole-free volume parameterization and diffusivity D model, (iii) example of parameterization and D predictions in PET.

ACS Style

Yan Zhu; Frank Welle; Olivier Vitrac. A blob model to parameterize polymer hole free volumes and solute diffusion. Soft Matter 2019, 15, 8912 -8932.

AMA Style

Yan Zhu, Frank Welle, Olivier Vitrac. A blob model to parameterize polymer hole free volumes and solute diffusion. Soft Matter. 2019; 15 (43):8912-8932.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Yan Zhu; Frank Welle; Olivier Vitrac. 2019. "A blob model to parameterize polymer hole free volumes and solute diffusion." Soft Matter 15, no. 43: 8912-8932.

Discussion
Published: 19 June 2019 in Water Research
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Microplastics in food is a relatively new research field with only few studies available so far. Scientists have been pointing out that some of these studies apply questionable analytical methods. Nevertheless, media often use such results to gain attention of the readers. It is therefore of particular significance, that only those scientific studies are published, clearly presenting valid data on the content of microplastics in food. Unfortunately, the study by Zuccarello et al. shows very critical aspects regarding analytical methods used and conclusions made. The applied procedure is not described and, therefore, does not allow any assessment by other groups, which is indispensable prerequisite of any scientific publication. Moreover, the analytical method used for the identification and quantification of microplastic particles – SEM-EDX – is not sound and not validated. Therefore, in our opinion the results on the contamination of bottled mineral water with microplastics published by Zuccarello et al. are more than questionable.

ACS Style

Barbara Oßmann; Darena Schymanski; Natalia P. Ivleva; Dieter Fischer; Franziska Fischer; Gerald Dallmann; Frank Welle. Comment on "exposure to microplastics (<10 μm) associated to plastic bottles mineral water consumption: The first quantitative study by Zuccarello et al. [Water Research 157 (2019) 365–371]". Water Research 2019, 162, 516 -517.

AMA Style

Barbara Oßmann, Darena Schymanski, Natalia P. Ivleva, Dieter Fischer, Franziska Fischer, Gerald Dallmann, Frank Welle. Comment on "exposure to microplastics (<10 μm) associated to plastic bottles mineral water consumption: The first quantitative study by Zuccarello et al. [Water Research 157 (2019) 365–371]". Water Research. 2019; 162 ():516-517.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Barbara Oßmann; Darena Schymanski; Natalia P. Ivleva; Dieter Fischer; Franziska Fischer; Gerald Dallmann; Frank Welle. 2019. "Comment on "exposure to microplastics (<10 μm) associated to plastic bottles mineral water consumption: The first quantitative study by Zuccarello et al. [Water Research 157 (2019) 365–371]"." Water Research 162, no. : 516-517.

Research article
Published: 14 February 2019 in International Journal of Polymer Science
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Polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) is a polyester polymer with well-known good barrier properties. PEN had been used in the food packaging area till 2012 especially as refillable bottles for soft drinks, juices, and beer. Now, PEN is mainly used in technical applications, e.g., for data storage tapes and organic light-emitting diode (OLED) applications. The aim of the study was the determination of the diffusion coefficients of organic molecules (n-alkanes, 1-alcohols) in PEN. Diffusion and partition coefficients were determined from the lag times of the permeation process of the permeants through a commercial 12 μm biaxial-oriented PEN film. In addition, activation energies of diffusion EA were calculated according to the Arrhenius approach. The activation energy of diffusion EA follows a correlation with the molecular volume V of the investigated permeants. In addition, the preexponential factor D0 follows a correlation with the activation energy of diffusion EA. The results of this study for PEN (e.g., EA, DP) were compared to literature data on PET.

ACS Style

Johann Ewender; Frank Welle. Diffusion Coefficients of n-Alkanes and 1-Alcohols in Polyethylene Naphthalate (PEN). International Journal of Polymer Science 2019, 2019, 1 -9.

AMA Style

Johann Ewender, Frank Welle. Diffusion Coefficients of n-Alkanes and 1-Alcohols in Polyethylene Naphthalate (PEN). International Journal of Polymer Science. 2019; 2019 ():1-9.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Johann Ewender; Frank Welle. 2019. "Diffusion Coefficients of n-Alkanes and 1-Alcohols in Polyethylene Naphthalate (PEN)." International Journal of Polymer Science 2019, no. : 1-9.

Journal article
Published: 07 January 2019 in Beverages
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Beverage cans are used for energy drinks, soft-drinks, sparkling waters, and beer. Bisphenol A is still part of the formulation of epoxy coatings of beverage cans. Due to concerns that bisphenol A acts as an endocrine-active substance, the migration of bisphenol A is restricted. Typically, the migration from beverage cans is tested at elevated temperatures into food simulants, like 20% ethanol in water. However, comparison tests of the migration of bisphenol A at the end of shelf life, with the migration into ethanolic food simulants, are not available in the scientific literature. The aim of the study was to determine the migration of the migration of bisphenol A into real beverages, compared to routine migration tests into the European official food simulant of 20% ethanol at 40 °C and 60 °C after storage for 10 days. As a result, bisphenol A-containing coatings show a considerably higher migration when tested at 60 °C in comparison to 40 °C. On the other hand, migration into energy drinks and coke, from the same coatings at the end of shelf life when stored at room temperature, was below the detection limit in either case. As expected, migration values of bisphenol A below the analytical detection limits were observed for any test conditions from the coating labeled bisphenol A-free. Spiking tests show that bisphenol A is stable in real beverages. Therefore, it can be concluded that the accelerated migration tests with 20% ethanol at the test conditions 10 d at 40 °C and 10 d at 60 °C significantly overestimate the real migration into beverages at the end of shelf life. This overestimation of the migration of bisphenol A is due to swelling of the epoxy can coating by the ethanolic food simulant. These findings were supported by migration modeling based on diffusion coefficients predicted for polyethylene terephthalate.

ACS Style

Carina Stärker; Frank Welle. Migration of Bisphenol A from Can Coatings into Beverages at the End of Shelf Life Compared to Regulated Test Conditions. Beverages 2019, 5, 3 .

AMA Style

Carina Stärker, Frank Welle. Migration of Bisphenol A from Can Coatings into Beverages at the End of Shelf Life Compared to Regulated Test Conditions. Beverages. 2019; 5 (1):3.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Carina Stärker; Frank Welle. 2019. "Migration of Bisphenol A from Can Coatings into Beverages at the End of Shelf Life Compared to Regulated Test Conditions." Beverages 5, no. 1: 3.

Review
Published: 19 November 2018 in Food Additives & Contaminants: Part A
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Microplastics have been ubiquitously found and identified in aquatic and terrestrial environments for several years. Due to their occurrence in the oceans, microplastics were also found and characterised in seafood products and in other foods and beverages such as beer, honey and table salt. Very recently, microplastic particles were also determined in bottled mineral water. The objective of this publication is to present and discuss a compilation of the currently available literature data on microplastics in bottled mineral water. The related oral exposure of the consumer from substances present in microplastics and from the plastics particles themselves is estimated and toxicological arguments for and considerations on risk assessment from the consumption of bottled mineral water containing microplastics are presented. Exposure estimations based on the reported microplastic amounts found in mineral water and the assumption of total mass transfer of small molecules like additives and oligomers present in the plastic would not raise a safety concern. Available toxicokinetic data suggests that marginal fraction of the ingested low amount of microplastics can be absorbed, if at all, the conclusion is very likely that the reported amounts present in bottled mineral water do not raise a safety concern for the consumer. Considering the use of plastic materials in our daily life, occurrence of microplastics in beverages is likely a minor exposure pathway for plastic particles. Due to recent progress in analytical methods and the public discussion on plastics marine litter, public concern about eating and drinking microplastics with food, and related safety issues was raised. However, a better data basis for exposure estimates and risk assessment would be very helpful to better accommodate consumer concerns. The intention of this paper is to deliver a contribution to this topic taking the bottled mineral water as a case example.

ACS Style

Frank Welle; Roland Franz. Microplastic in bottled natural mineral water – literature review and considerations on exposure and risk assessment. Food Additives & Contaminants: Part A 2018, 35, 2482 -2492.

AMA Style

Frank Welle, Roland Franz. Microplastic in bottled natural mineral water – literature review and considerations on exposure and risk assessment. Food Additives & Contaminants: Part A. 2018; 35 (12):2482-2492.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Frank Welle; Roland Franz. 2018. "Microplastic in bottled natural mineral water – literature review and considerations on exposure and risk assessment." Food Additives & Contaminants: Part A 35, no. 12: 2482-2492.

Article
Published: 21 February 2018 in Journal of Applied Polymer Science
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ACS Style

J. Ewender; F. Welle. Determination of the activation energies of diffusion of organic molecules in poly(ethylene terephthalate). Journal of Applied Polymer Science 2018, 135, 1 .

AMA Style

J. Ewender, F. Welle. Determination of the activation energies of diffusion of organic molecules in poly(ethylene terephthalate). Journal of Applied Polymer Science. 2018; 135 (21):1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

J. Ewender; F. Welle. 2018. "Determination of the activation energies of diffusion of organic molecules in poly(ethylene terephthalate)." Journal of Applied Polymer Science 135, no. 21: 1.

Book chapter
Published: 26 June 2017 in Food Packaging Materials
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ACS Style

Annika Ebert; Roland Franz; Carina Gehring; Diana Kemmer; Frank Welle. Testing Migration from Food Packaging Materials. Food Packaging Materials 2017, 251 -302.

AMA Style

Annika Ebert, Roland Franz, Carina Gehring, Diana Kemmer, Frank Welle. Testing Migration from Food Packaging Materials. Food Packaging Materials. 2017; ():251-302.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Annika Ebert; Roland Franz; Carina Gehring; Diana Kemmer; Frank Welle. 2017. "Testing Migration from Food Packaging Materials." Food Packaging Materials , no. : 251-302.

Book chapter
Published: 26 June 2017 in Food Packaging
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ACS Style

Annika Ebert; Roland Franz; Carina Gehring; Diana Kemmer; Frank Welle; Preeti Singh; Ali Wani; Horst-Christian Langowski. Testing Migration from Food Packaging Materials. Food Packaging 2017, 251 -302.

AMA Style

Annika Ebert, Roland Franz, Carina Gehring, Diana Kemmer, Frank Welle, Preeti Singh, Ali Wani, Horst-Christian Langowski. Testing Migration from Food Packaging Materials. Food Packaging. 2017; ():251-302.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Annika Ebert; Roland Franz; Carina Gehring; Diana Kemmer; Frank Welle; Preeti Singh; Ali Wani; Horst-Christian Langowski. 2017. "Testing Migration from Food Packaging Materials." Food Packaging , no. : 251-302.

Article
Published: 22 March 2017 in Packaging Technology and Science
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Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in contact with food must comply with the requirements laid down in the European Regulation (EU) 10/2011, which specifies conditions for migration tests. For real contact times longer than 30 days, accelerated migration tests are performed at elevated temperatures for a maximum of 10 days at 60°C. These conditions should represent the end of the shelf life (e.g. 365 days at 23°C) and are calculated using the Arrhenius equation on the basis of a default activation energy of 80 kJ/mol. However, for PET, it is well known that the activation energy is strongly dependent on the molecular size of the migrant. Small molecules like acetaldehyde have activation energies in PET of ~80 kJ/mol. For larger molecules like 2-aminobenzamide with a predicted activation energy of diffusion of 134.4 kJ/mol, the storage times at 60°C and 40°C equivalent to the migration after 1 year at 23°C are 0.85 and 18.9 days, respectively. These findings were confirmed by experimental migration tests. For 2-aminobenzamide, migration for 10 days at 60°C corresponded to a storage time at 23°C of 11.7 years, which is significantly higher than the long-term storage of more than 6 months as foreseen in Regulation (EU) 10/2011. For larger molecules, the corresponding storage times at 23°C would even be longer, thus overestimating by far the migration at the end of shelf life. Contact conditions of 10 days at 60°C are too severe for PET. Migrant-specific and polymer-specific diffusion parameters should therefore be considered when designing accelerated migration tests for long-term applications. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

ACS Style

Carina Gehring; Frank Welle. Migration Testing of Polyethylene Terephthalate: Comparison of Regulated Test Conditions with Migration into Real Food at the End of Shelf Life. Packaging Technology and Science 2017, 31, 771 -780.

AMA Style

Carina Gehring, Frank Welle. Migration Testing of Polyethylene Terephthalate: Comparison of Regulated Test Conditions with Migration into Real Food at the End of Shelf Life. Packaging Technology and Science. 2017; 31 (12):771-780.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Carina Gehring; Frank Welle. 2017. "Migration Testing of Polyethylene Terephthalate: Comparison of Regulated Test Conditions with Migration into Real Food at the End of Shelf Life." Packaging Technology and Science 31, no. 12: 771-780.

Journal article
Published: 01 September 2016 in Resources, Conservation and Recycling
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The cleaning efficiency of a PET recycling process is typically investigated by artificial contamination of post-consumer PET flakes within a so-called challenge test. Challenging of pilot plants or industrial scale lines is done be introducing a certain amount of contaminated flakes while running the process with non-contaminated flakes of different colour. After decontamination the contaminated flakes are separated from the non-contaminated flakes and only the contaminated flakes were analysed due to their residual contamination level. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), however, raised the question about cross-contamination, which might reduce the overall cleaning efficiency of the recycling process. Cross-contamination is defined as the transfer of surrogate contaminants from the initially contaminated to the initially not contaminated material during a challenge test. Data for the phenomenon of cross-contamination are not available in the scientific literature. Aim of the study was to close this gap by providing experimental data for cross-contamination by use of several challenge tests. As a result cross-contamination was found only at ratios of 1:1 between contaminated and non-contaminated PET flakes. At higher ratios which were typically applied in challenge tests on pilot plant or industrial scale line cross-contamination do not play a significant role. In addition, the results show that cross-contamination is negligible for volatile compounds.

ACS Style

Frank Welle. Investigation into cross-contamination during cleaning efficiency testing in PET recycling. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 2016, 112, 65 -72.

AMA Style

Frank Welle. Investigation into cross-contamination during cleaning efficiency testing in PET recycling. Resources, Conservation and Recycling. 2016; 112 ():65-72.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Frank Welle. 2016. "Investigation into cross-contamination during cleaning efficiency testing in PET recycling." Resources, Conservation and Recycling 112, no. : 65-72.

Journal article
Published: 04 April 2016 in Packaging Technology and Science
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ACS Style

Johann Ewender; Frank Welle. Functional Barrier Performance of a Polyamide-6 Membrane Towards n -Alkanes and 1-Alcohols. Packaging Technology and Science 2016, 29, 277 -287.

AMA Style

Johann Ewender, Frank Welle. Functional Barrier Performance of a Polyamide-6 Membrane Towards n -Alkanes and 1-Alcohols. Packaging Technology and Science. 2016; 29 (6):277-287.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Johann Ewender; Frank Welle. 2016. "Functional Barrier Performance of a Polyamide-6 Membrane Towards n -Alkanes and 1-Alcohols." Packaging Technology and Science 29, no. 6: 277-287.

Journal article
Published: 05 January 2016 in Food Additives & Contaminants: Part A
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Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles are widely used as packaging material for natural mineral water. However, trace levels of acetaldehyde can migrate into natural mineral water during the shelf life and might influence the taste of the PET bottled water. 2-Aminobenzamide is widely used during PET bottle production as a scavenging agent for acetaldehyde. The aim of this study was the determination of the migration kinetics of 2-aminobenzamide into natural mineral water as well as into 20% ethanol. From the migration kinetics, the diffusion coefficients of 2-aminobenzamide in PET at 23 and 40°C were determined to be 4.2 × 10(-)(16) and 4.2 × 10(-)(15) cm(2) s(-1), respectively. The diffusion coefficient for 20% ethanol at 40°C was determined to be 7.7 × 10(-)(15) cm(2) s(-1), which indicates that 20% ethanol is causing swelling of the PET polymer. From a comparison of migration values between 23 and 40°C, acceleration factors of 9.7 when using water as contact medium and 18.1 for 20% ethanol as simulant can be derived for definition of appropriate accelerated test conditions at 40°C. The European Union regulatory acceleration test based on 80 kJ mol(-1) as conservative activation energy overestimates the experimentally determined acceleration rates by a factor of 1.6 and 3.1, respectively.

ACS Style

Roland Franz; Margit Gmeiner; Anita Gruner; Diana Kemmer; Frank Welle. Diffusion behaviour of the acetaldehyde scavenger 2-aminobenzamide in polyethylene terephthalate for beverage bottles. Food Additives & Contaminants: Part A 2016, 33, 1 -9.

AMA Style

Roland Franz, Margit Gmeiner, Anita Gruner, Diana Kemmer, Frank Welle. Diffusion behaviour of the acetaldehyde scavenger 2-aminobenzamide in polyethylene terephthalate for beverage bottles. Food Additives & Contaminants: Part A. 2016; 33 (2):1-9.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Roland Franz; Margit Gmeiner; Anita Gruner; Diana Kemmer; Frank Welle. 2016. "Diffusion behaviour of the acetaldehyde scavenger 2-aminobenzamide in polyethylene terephthalate for beverage bottles." Food Additives & Contaminants: Part A 33, no. 2: 1-9.

Journal article
Published: 01 September 2015 in Food Packaging and Shelf Life
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ACS Style

Heiko Diehl; Frank Welle. How to determine functional barrier performance towards mineral oil contaminants from recycled cardboard. Food Packaging and Shelf Life 2015, 5, 41 -49.

AMA Style

Heiko Diehl, Frank Welle. How to determine functional barrier performance towards mineral oil contaminants from recycled cardboard. Food Packaging and Shelf Life. 2015; 5 ():41-49.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Heiko Diehl; Frank Welle. 2015. "How to determine functional barrier performance towards mineral oil contaminants from recycled cardboard." Food Packaging and Shelf Life 5, no. : 41-49.