Safety level and risk assessment of melamine migration from food contact materials

Abstract

The residuals of melamine from food contact materials (FCMs) can contaminate into foods. To protect consumer health, the European Union has issued Commission Regulation (EU) No 1282/2011 about specific migration limit (SML) of melamine at 2.5 mg/kg. Therefore, this research was to study the migration of melamine from FCMs which were collected from local markets in 4 regions including Central, Northeast, North and South by using 3% (w/v) acetic acid and high performance - liquid chromatography (HPLC). The extraction method was performed at 70 °C for 2 hours. The amounts of melamine in samples were tested to estimate dietary exposure. The average of melamine content was found at 13.5 mg kg^-1 for all types of FCMs.  This result had been evaluated for the exposure assessment of melamine and found that various kinds of foods such as rice, fresh milk, beverage and water have high risk depending on food type, age, intake and food packaging used. The highest risk was found in fresh milk for aged 0-3 years and drinking water for aged more than 3 years at 97.5 percentile and eater only. Therefore, the food types with high consumption may have been concerned high risk and avoid misuse of melamine containers in order to prevent a health hazard.