Effects of Consumer Use Practices on Nanosilver Release from Commercially Available Food Contact Materials

Published

October 23, 2018

Author(s)

Susana Addo Ntim, Samuel R. Norris, David Goodwin, Jens Breffke, Keana Scott, Li Piin Sung, Treye Thomas, Gregory O. Noonan

Abstract

Migration evaluation involving nano-enabled food contact materials (FCMs) mostly focus on potential nanoparticle release from new unused products. This may not represent consumer use practices encountered by the FCMs in their lifecycle. In order to determine if product use impacts the release of nanoparticles or other FCM components it is necessary to perfrom migration evaluations under typical consumer use scenarios. A quantitative assessment of nanoparticle release from a commercially available nanosilver-enabled cutting board was performed under five conditions intended to simulate consumer use. Knife motion, washing and scratching scenarios were simulated by linear abrasion using knife blades, scrubbing pads and tungsten carbide burr attachments, respectively. Migration was evaluated using water and 3 % acetic acid as food simulants. Low concentrations of silver (Ag) were detected in water simulants, a small portion (<4 ng dm-2) in the form of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) with particle number concentrations on the order of 106 particles dm-2. Median particle diameter was 40 nm. Nanoparticle release into water was observed under all five consumer use scenarios studied, however there was no correlation with the different levels of stress simulated.

Citation

Food Control

Pub Type

Journals

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DOI Link

Keywords

silver nanoparticles, food contact materials, consumer products, release, Ag NPs

Citation

Addo Ntim, S. , Norris, S. , Goodwin, D. , Breffke, J. , Scott, K. , Sung, L. , Thomas, T. and Noonan, G. (2018), Effects of Consumer Use Practices on Nanosilver Release from Commercially Available Food Contact Materials, Food Control, [online], https://doi.org/10.1080/19440049.2018.1529437 (Accessed October 8, 2025)