Study on migration of melamine from food packaging materials on markets.

OBJECTIVES To study the migration of melamine into foods from plastic food packaging materials and dairy product containers commonly used in China. METHODS 37 samples were collected from the market. The EU migration testing conditions were adopted with distilled water, 3% acetic acid, n-hexane and 15% ethanol being chosen as the simulating solutions. The HPLC method was used to detect melamine. RESULTS No melamine was detected in 15 dairy product containers. Among the 22 plastic samples, 16 of polypropylene, and polycarbonate types had no detectable amount melamine while a low level of melamine was found in 3 of the 6 melamine resin containers. CONCLUSION Migration of melamine from food packaging materials in China market is in line with the requirements of EU.