Testing and Analysis

Materials in Contact with Food

Global migration testing in aqueous, fatty and substitute simulants on plastic food contact materials. Our laboratories are fully accredited by the Spanish National Accreditation Entity (ENAC) to perform UNE-EN 1186 migration tests on plastic food contact materials in accordance with the UNE-EN ISO/IEC 17025 standard.

Specific migration testing (under normalisation or tuning method).

Food safety testing for other materials: Non-plastic polymeric materials, recycled plastics, ceramic materials and active smart materials.

Barrier properties: Oxygen and water vapour permeability.

Packaging validation.

Product life cycle analysis: Microbiological analysis, determination of properties such as oxidation, weight loss, dehydration, firmness, pH levels

BIODEGRADABILITY AND COMPOSTABILITY

Andaltec has state-of-the-art Biodegradability and Compostability laboratories, fully equipped to conduct tests in line with the European standard EN 13432: “requirements for packaging recoverable through composting and biodegradation. Testing programme and evaluation criteria for packaging final acceptance”.

Biodegrability in compliance with standard ISO 14855-1 (determination of the final aerobic biodegradability of plastic materials under controlled composting conditions. Method for analysis of carbon dioxide evolution).

Disintegrability under ISO 16929:2002 (E) standard. Determination of the disintegration degree of plastic materials under controlled composting conditions, defined in pilot-scale testing.

Compost quality. Modified OECD 208 test. Determination of heavy metal levels and lack of negative effects on the compost quality. Plant growth testing.

METROLOGY

3D measurement of parts, tooling and calibers of maximum size (1200x3000x1000mm) and 2,250 kg.

Regular control of production and product tolerances.

3D scanning, digitalisation, dimensional control and reverse engineering with high resolution 3D scanning technology. Vision fields from 30mm to 1,500 mm. Resolution: 0.0014 mm (small parts) / 0.0053 (large parts).

ACCELERERATED AGEING

Salt fog chamber: Analysis of effects derived from exposure to humid heat, water spraying and salt fog.

Solar box: Artificial ageing, exposure to artificial radiation.

Climatic chamber: Combined cycles of temperature and humidity.

Supply sources. Migration testing

Thermal shock

Migration Testing

Regulation (EU) 10/2011 on plastic materials in contact with food stipulates that plastic materials and objects must not release their constituents to food simulants in quantities exceeding 10 milligrams of released constituents per square decimeter of contact surface (mg/dm²).

Andaltec laboratories conduct global migration tests to ensure that plastic materials and objects do not exceed the global migration limit (GML). The GML is the maximum permissible amount of non-volatile substances released from a material or object into food simulants.

The regulation also outlines requirements for packaging in contact with food exposed to changes in typical temperature conditions, such as microwave and oven use, as well as prolonged freezing or refrigeration.

The physical-chemical laboratory of the Andaltec Foundation is accredited by ENAC to perform these global migration tests, under the scope of the following standards:

• Testing Methods for Global Migration in Vegetable Oil. UNE-EN 1186-2

• Testing Methods for Global Migration in Evaporative Simulants. UNE-EN 1186-3

Our technology center also conducts specific migration tests, which verify that plastic materials and objects comply with the Specific Migration Limit (SML) outlined in Regulation (EU) 10/2011. The SML is the maximum permissible amount of a given substance released from a material or object into food or food simulants.

In these cases, tests are performed on packaging, simulating situations such as storage at room temperature and freezing for several months, or heating at different temperatures.