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As part of our "Why Buy From Bostik" series, learn how Bostik's expertise and testing capabilities set us apart in ensuring your food packaging meets FDA safety compliance and reduces chemical migration. Read how working with our team will provide you comprehensive food safety testing protocols and consultations. 

In the food packaging industry, it’s crucial to understand the potential for package chemical migration so that it: 

  • Meets FDA food regulatory compliance
  • Reduces chemical migration potential 

However, it can be daunting to learn about and conduct successful testing procedures with everything else you must consider and manage in development of a food packaging product.  

When working with Bostik, that doesn’t have to be the case. Our technical support team offers extensive expertise and testing to help you manufacture food-safe packaging. Learn how our capabilities make it easy for you to accomplish your packaging safety goals which differentiate Bostik amongst adhesive suppliers. 

The Need to Meet FDA Food Safety Compliance 

Currently, you may be responsible for choosing substrates, adhesives, coatings, inks and more that are used in food packaging. These components may or may not meet FDA food safety requirements; it is up to you to assess this. However, it can be difficult to know what substrates to choose, as many factors can impact food safety, including: 

  • End-use application temperatures: The FDA does provide defined temperature conditions to help with food safety testing; however, you must also consider the region where your end-use product will be sold. If it is outside the U.S., conditions such as room temperature guidelines may differ. 
  • Food type: Food can influence migration depending on whether it is fatty, aqueous, acidic or dry; in general, chemicals in food packaging migrate to a greater extent in fatty foods because they are more soluble in fat than water. 
  • Substrates (such as certain thicknesses of PET plastic, glass or metal) can serve as functional barriers in packaging: These barriers that are in contact with the food product should be evaluated for the ability to retard migration. This effect on migration is different depending on the film type and thickness.

Solution: Bostik’s Food Safety Testing Protocol 

To help make meeting the FDA requirements easy, we developed food safety testing protocols that meet FDA guidelines for packaging materials so that you can know whether their packaging meets FDA safety compliance when used with our adhesives.  

This protocol includes studying chemicals that migrate into food simulants at sub parts per billion levels. With our in-house analytical equipment, we offer a detection range for chemical migration that most competitors do not provide. This enables us to study temperature variations, impacts on various food types and substrate protection according to your specific package designs. Further, through testing, we can help ensure your packaging meets guidelines if it will be sold outside the U.S. region. 

By conducting step-by-step tests and analyses on the food packaging, we determine whether the package meets FDA guidelines on your behalf. While other adhesive suppliers may offer food safety testing, our Bostik team takes it a step further by helping you find a solution if any issues are detected during testing. This helps you gain a clear understanding of what substrates and other materials work together in your packaging, while also knowing a team of experts have determined these components will provide high end-use performance and meet FDA compliance. If the food packaging doesn’t meet FDA guidelines after testing, we will conduct additional analyses to provide recommendations on what will help meet FDA compliance requirements. 

The Need to Reduce Chemical Migration Likelihood 

Chemical migration occurs when chemical substances transfer from packaging materials into the food product; it’s important to reduce its likelihood to help ensure food safety. Packaging components, such as barriers, adhesives and inks can play a role in chemical migration levels in the following ways: 

  • Barriers: Barriers are typically a film in lightweight flexible packaging substrates such as polyethyene; however, they do not serve as true barricades in stopping chemical migration entirely. This is because chemicals found can move through them; in particular, chemicals often move from high concentration to low concentration until chemical equilibrium is reached.  
  • Adhesives: Adhesive molecule size and chemical reactivity tend to impact an adhesive’s chances of migrating chemicals into food; for example, small molecules have higher diffusion rates than large molecules and can lead to increased migration risks.  
  • Coatings and Inks: If a packaging film with an ink or coating for a logo or branding message is rolled up, the ink can offset on to the side of the film that will eventually touch food. This increases the chances for chemical migration. This can also occur with paper to-go cups that have a coating or printed logo on the outside getting stacked on top of each other. This type of off-set migration also needs to be evaluated.

However, it can be difficult to identify on your own what specifically is causing chemical migration in your food packaging. Without a trusted expert to help you assess these factors in your packaging, it’s possible you could miss opportunities to reduce overall health risks in your packaging materials or processes.  

 

Solution: Bostik’s Chemical Migration Testing 

Our Bostik team can conduct testing to help ensure chemical migration is below a level of concern, which includes studying the impacts of barriers, adhesives and inks. This is completed in the following steps: 

  1. Determine all components that may migrate from the package 
  2. Use the most appropriate toxicological data for establishing detection limits 
  3. Use application data or FDA consumption factors to determine appropriate consumer exposure 
  4. Perform testing in all applicable food types and temperatures and conditions 
  5. Risk assess package for its intended use

As previously mentioned, our chemical migration testing entails studying chemical migrants at sub parts-per-billion levels with our analytical equipment, which goes beyond what most other adhesive suppliers can offer which allows us to assess the safety of particularly toxic materials. We also provide food safety assurance throughout the value chain, especially for those who do not have the capability to conduct this testing such as converters or brand owners.  

That’s not all, though! We also provide:  

Additional In-House Equipment 

We have an in-house laminator where we can test full, finished packaging with our laminating adhesives. We then test the production to scale, helping us determine realistic efficiencies once you are processing on your own equipment. These in-house capabilities allow you to receive complete testing without delaying your own day-to-day production. When a product is migration tested, we issue FDA letters that provide a full description of migration analyses to help you determine if the product can be used safely in your application. 

Food Safety Consultations 

Along with developing a food safety testing protocol and conducting chemical migration testing, Bostik will work with you to help you better understand how to enhance overall food safety.  

These consultations include working directly with Bostik’s Food Packaging Manager Joseph Spinnato who co-chairs the Food Safety Alliance for Packaging.  As one of Bostik’s food safety consultants focused on educating the supply chain about food packaging safety, he helps customers learn ways to reduce chemical migration or interpret detailed food regulations. Additionally, our team can assess your operations to see how all steps of the process are contributing to food safety and what can be optimized. 

Other Reasons to Choose Bostik  

We also provide: 

Wide portfolio of adhesive solutions: Our food packaging laminating adhesives and coatings provide a range of FDA compliant options that address chemical migration while providing high performance for your application needs.  

Troubleshooting assistance: Whether you’re stuck in a certain phase or looking to optimize your processes, we can move your production forward by helping to alleviate concerns and prevent future issues. 

Are you ready to work with a flexible materials supplier who can provide expertise and testing capabilities to help ensure your packaging addresses food safety?

Contact a Bostik expert

©2025 Bostik, Inc. All Rights Reserved

All information contained herein is believed to be accurate as of the date of publication, is provided “as-is” and is subject to change without notice. To review our full U.S. Legal Disclaimer, visit: https://bostik.com/us/en_US/privacy-policy/legal-disclaimer

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