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NIAS screening in Food Contact Materials
The research and the identification of NIAS, Non-Intentionally Added Substances, is a key activity to ensure the safety and quality of Food Contact Materials. Packaging and other FCMs are safe when they does not release potentially dangerous substances on food.
What are NIAS?
NIAS (Non-Intentionally Added Substances) are substances that can form in materials intended for contact with food including packaging. Unlike constituent or functional additives, these "unintentionally added substances" do not derive from the regular production process of articles and materials, but are generated through unexpected or uncontrollable chemical processes , for example example:
- Degradation of materials;
- Irradiation processes;
- Impurities contained in the raw material or additives;
- Possible contaminants that come into contact with the material at any stage of the production cycle;
- Newly formed compounds generated through uncontrolled reactions between raw materials.
NIAS: Regulations
The NIAS are defined within the Regulation (EU) 10/2011 on plastic materials intended for contact with food, in article 3 paragraph 9:
“Substance added unintentionally”: impurity present in the substances used, reaction intermediate formed during the production process or product of reaction or decomposition.
Art. 19 makes the NIAS contamination risk assessment mandatory, like all substances that could reasonably be present in the finished product but which are not explicitly permitted for use by the regulation itself.
However, NIAS are not exclusively about plastic: they can be generated in any type of material . For this, their research and identification must be part of the risk assessment of Food Contact Materials, as required by Regulation (EC) 1935/2004 . Article 3 provides that for each material the possible transfer of "components" in concentrations such as to be evaluated:
- endanger human health; or
- bring about an unacceptable change in the composition of the food; or
- bring about a deterioration in the organoleptic characteristics thereof.
NIAS in Food Contact Materials
How to prevent the risk of migration of these substances into food?
The research and identification of NIAS begins with the detailed analysis of the production process at the origin of the Food Contact Materials, in order to identify all the substances involved that could give rise to unwanted reactions. Then, on the basis of these observations, it is necessary to design a customized analytical plan on the characteristics of the materials used.
Thanks to our thirty years of experience and a wide range of screening cases performed daily on various materials, we offer complete support for each phase of the risk assessment of FCMs , allowing our partners to produce and market their own materials for in contact with food in complete safety and compliance.
The instrumentation of our laboratories is able to perform the screening and characterization of any type of NIAS - volatile, semi-volatile and non-volatile molecules - in order to guarantee safe products for consumers and the environment.
NIAS screening in Food Contact Materials.
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