Probabilistic simulation of children exposure to migrants from packaging: photoinitiators from printing inks

This paper presents an exercise to simulate exposure of Portuguese consumers to benzophenone, a photoinitiator used in packaging printing inks. The simulation model combines experimental data of benzophenone concentration actually found in packages collected from the market and food consumption and packaging usage data obtained from a database. The model follows a probabilistic approach: the distribution of occurrence data was combines with food consumption data in a probabilistic simulation with the Monte Carlo sampling method. Exposure values found indicate that benzophenone levels of exposure are of no concern healthwise according to the tolerable daily intake defined by EFSA.