Characterization of patterns of food packaging usage in Portuguese homes

This study aimed to further refine the exposure assessment of migrants from food-contact materials by characterizing, at the household level, food packaging usage (amount and type) in Portuguese urban families. Packages from domestic use were collected from a sample of 105 consumers from 34 households over a 30-day period. Collected packages (more than 6000 items) were characterized in the laboratory and data were used to estimate: (i) global packaging usage and food intake; (ii) the consumption factors (CF) that describe the fraction of the daily diet expected to be in contact with specific packaging materials and (iii) the food-type factors (FTF) that reflect the fraction of all food contacting each material which differ in nature according to six major types: aqueous, acidic, alcoholic, milky, fatty and dry. The daily intake of packaged food and beverages consumed at home ranged from 5-50 g kg^-1 bw. Considering all materials, total package usage ranged from 0.1 to 0.6dm² day^-1 kg^-1 bw. The ratio between package surface area in contact and the quantity of food was determined for all packaging items collected and an average value of 25 dm² kg^-1 food was recorded. Data were gathered and presented in a manner compatible with current probabilistic approaches to exposure assessment. In this way, relevant consumption patterns from this type of population can be best represented in exposure assessments and subsequent risk assessments.