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A contamination of soft drinks in sealed bottles by organic solvents is reported: closed bottles full of soft drinks were accidentally placed on a cardboard soaked with thinner and the organic fluid subsequently fissured the bottom of the bottles and penetrated into the soft drinks without any apparent leakage of the soft drinks. Experiments were carried out to simulate the process: the penetration of different organic solvents into soft drinks through the bottom of closed bottles was tested. The penetration occurred only when the closed bottles contained carbonated soft drinks (CSD), indicating that inner pressure is a necessary condition for the fissuring of the bottles. This paper discusses environmental stress cracking of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles by organic solvents and migration of chemicals to CSD. Experiments were conducted to determine the conditions in which PET can be permeable to poisoning organic products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is one of the packaging materials that is widely used for packaging of soft drinks. PET may contain acetaldehyde which is a thermal degradation product, and hence acetaldehyde may migrate into the product in the package. In this study, the migration of acetaldehyde from PET bottles into soft drinks containing carbonic acid was determined by gas chromatography without headspace instrument. Carbonated beverage samples obtained from four different firms following the filling process were stored at 5, 20 and 40 °C for 6 months and analysed periodically at 0 day, 2, 4 and 6 months. As a result, it was seen that the acetaldehyde concentrations of all samples were quite different from each other and also related to the storage temperature, and an increase in storage time raised acetaldehyde concentrations in beverages. Especially, storages at 40 °C had very serious effect on acetaldehyde concentrations in the beverages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the judgments of the European Court of Justice in Commission v. Germany and Radlberger GmbH & Co., S. Spitz KG v. Land Baden-Württemberg, concerning the German preference for reusable beverage packaging and the way in which Germany givest it preferential treatment. Relevant provisions of the Packaging and Waste Packaging Directive; Opinion of the Advocate-General in the Danish bottles case; Criticism of Europe on Germany's quota system.