Migration of Adipate Plasticizers from Polyvinyl Chloride Films into Foods and Their Decomposition.

The migration of adipate plasticizers from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) films into foods, their decomposition and acute toxicity were investigated. Adipates were detected in many kinds of foods wrapped by using PVC films. They tended to migrate from the PVC films much more into foods cooked with oil, like croquettes, than into raw fish, meat and fresh vegetables. Adipates contained in PVC films were hydrolyzed to adipic acid and alcohol when allowed to keep in contact with non-cooked foods, especially swordfish and lotus roots for several days. And diisononyl adipate added to various foods was also cleaved into isononyl alcohol and adipic acid on standing at 30°C. A few kinds of bacteria which can hydrolyze adipates were isolated from the PVC films used to wrap various foods. It was suggested that the decomposition was mainly caused by bacteria. LD50 of diisononyl adipate and plasticizers (di-n-alkyl adipate 89%, acetyltributyl citrate 11%) which was extracted from PVC films were 36.3 g/kg and >48.0 g/kg, respectively.