BPA & STYRENE

The laboratory has developed and validated new limits of quantification to adapt to the new toxicological data which will soon be cdonverted into more stringent specific migration limits:

• For the BPA Food Contact Center it has already validated the migration method with a quantification limit of 0,00015 mg/kg, a value indicated by Regulation 10/2011 for genotoxic substances.
• For the STYRENE Food Contact Center it is one of the few laboratories that manages to quantify it at ppb levels, necessary because after EFSA published the Risk Assessment not excluding the genotoxicity of the substance, the European commission intends to introduce in Reg.10/2011 a stringent specific migration limit. In 2018 the monograph by the IARC was published, in which styrene is classified as “probably carcinogenic to humans” (Group 2°). Since 2020, EFSA has continued to evaluate the impact of styrene genotoxicity on humans by collecting data from the toxicological studies carried out. Given the growing paid attention to styrene at an international level, the Food Contact Center has developed an ad hoc analytical method in various food to considerably lower the quantification limit in view of probable introduction of a more stringent specific migration limit. A study is underway for the definition of foods representative of broad categories of foods and preparations, useful for materials that can potentially come into contact with all types of foods. A study is underway for the definition of foods representative of broad catefories of foods and preparations, useful form materials that can potentially come into contact with all types of foods.