In cooperation with South Korean plastics producer Kumho (Seoul; www.kkpc.co.kr/eng/), technical thermoplastics distributor DVA Plastics (Hamburg / Germany; www.dvaplastics.com) has developed a styrene acrylonitrile copolymer (SAN) modified for food contact applications. Long-term DVA customer Koziol (Erbach / Germany; www.koziol.de) has manufactured a drinking bottle from the new SAN grade “310TR (E)” and analysed the new product in compliance with legal provisions on SAN trimers, including a toxicological assessment.

The findings conform with the EU standard 10/2011 for Food Contact Plastics and the German Consumer Goods Ordinance as well as the Food and Feed Code. All SAN trimers could be classified as “safe as regards human health.”

According to DVA, SAN 310TR (E) can thus be used for manufacturing drinking bottles, cups, water filters, decanters and other food contact products and is now generally available. Characteristics and processing remain nearly unchanged compared to existing SAN grades.

Since 1 January 2016, plastics used in food contact applications have to comply in full with legal regulations. This has drawn a lot of attention to so-called NIAS (non-intentionally added substances), in addition to total migration and specific migration limits. In addition to the known problem of the residual monomer values (acrylonitrile content), manufacturers now also have to include and evaluate SAN trimer formation during injection moulding into their declarations of conformity.