New paradigm for patterns of home packaged food intake

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe a pilot study characterizing the domestic usage of food packaging (amount and type) at the household level. Design/methodology/approach – Collection and detailed characterization is carried out, from a sample of Portuguese consumers, of packages used at home during a seven-day period. Findings – The daily intake of domestically consumed, packaged food ranged from 5 to 50 g/kgbw. The average intake value for children below 12 years old was 26 g/kgbw. Considering all packaging materials, package usage ranged from 0.1dm2/day.kgbw to 0.6dm2/day.kgbw. Packaging usage factors and food-type distribution factors for each packaging material were estimated. Research limitations/implications – The period of packaging collection and the size of the sample limit the degree of generalized conclusions that can be drawn. Practical implications – The data collected are the base for the development of a framework and could make an important contribution to the assessment of consumer exposure to substances migrating from packages into food, in this case of the Portuguese consumer. Originality/value – The results achieved are analysed in relation to the current assumptions made for the safety assessment of materials in the relevant European legislation. Furthermore, the results achieved can be used in a probabilistic approach to these assessments as the distributions of values, and not only the per capita values, are known.