Regulation EC/882/2004 on Feed and Food Controls establishes the JRC as Community Reference Laboratory for Food Contact Materials (CRL-FCM). The Regulation requires a supporting network of European National Reference Laboratories (NRLs). This Regulation supports the harmonised enforcement of food legislation including food contact materials and the creation of a reference laboratory system operated by the JRC to systematically exchange and assess information on emerging issues related to chemicals released from food contact materials.
The Council Directive 85/572/EEC of 19 December 1985 lays down the list of simulants for overall and specific migration testing, to be used for testing migration of constituents of plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with foodstuff.
This Directive lists the appropriate simulants to be used in migration tests with a particular foodstuff or group of foodstuffs. Within simulants, simulant D is rectified olive oil that has to satisfy characteristics such as acidity, peroxide index, iodine index, refractive index.
Until 2005 rectified olive oil with documented appropriate technical specifications was commercially available from the company Pira International (UK). However commercial production stopped, and other potential sources available (Korea Japan, Sigma) did not necessarily provide specifications documented specifically for use as ¿simulant D¿.
Since the oil specifications set in the EU legislation are crucial, both for compliance testing but also in the frame of an ISO accreditation for migration in oil, NRLs suggested the CRL-FCM to investigate specifications potential sources of olive oil to develop a source of simulant D for their purposes.
The purpose of this study was to:
¿ Find potential suppliers for rectified olive oil
¿ Evaluate characteristics of oil on batch samples
¿ Select one supplier to purchase a lot of adequate defined specifications
¿ Establish the adequacy and homogeneity of the oil of a 500L lot
¿ Confirm the evaluation by independent analyses and certification by a specialised accredited institution for those specifications.
The results demonstrated the feasibility of at least one source of olive oil, which was then provided to the National Reference Laboratories as a deliverable of the workprogramme 2007.JRC.I.5-Physical and chemical exposure
