Modelling of simultaneous two-sided migration into water and olive oil from nylon food packaging

Nylon 6 and nylon 12 food packaging materials used as sausage casings are typically exposed to fatty food on one side and boiling water on the other during the cooking process. To simulate the migration behaviour under these conditions, a special migration cell was constructed and filled with olive oil on one side of the polymer and water on the other to find out what amounts of the migrants will transfer to either side and phase at 100 degreesC. Results show that when a nylon 6 film is exposed to the conditions as described above, total mass transfer of the monomer-caprolactam-into the water phase occurs after 2 h at 100 degreesC. Nylon 12 sausage casings release similar amounts of their monomer-laurolactam-into both the aqueous and oil phase. An existing computer migration model was adapted to simulate the situation of simultaneous two-sided migration applying previously determined diffusion and partitioning coefficients. The suitability of the model was confirmed by experimental data.