Contact
Sigurjón Arason
Chief Engineer
sigurjon.arason@matis.is
The main result of an experiment carried out this summer in collaboration between Matís, the University of Iceland, Eurofins and Tempru is that it is not necessary to pack fresh fish fillets in plastic bags before packing in foam boxes, which are stored and transported in refrigerated and supercooled conditions. You can learn more about this in Matís report no. 07-17, saved on Matís website.
The aim of the experiment was to investigate the possible flow of styrene from foam plastic boxes to fresh cod and redfish fillets, which are stored at typical temperatures during sea transport of fresh fillets from Iceland to Europe or America. US buyers want fish fillets to be packed in plastic bags before packing in a foam box due to possible styrene contamination from foam to fish. Therefore, in this project, styrene was measured in fish, which had been stored without plastic bags in foam boxes, and the amount of styrene was compared with the standards of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). A total of 12 foam boxes containing cod or redfish fillets were stored for 4, 7 or 13 days at either -1 ° C or 2 ° C, which corresponds to the optimal and highest probable temperature in fresh fillet shipping. One 10-50 g sample was taken from the lower part of the bottom fish fillet in each box and had thus been in direct contact with foam plastic and therefore placed in a glass bottle. Subsequently, the 12 samples were sent for analysis to Eurofins, an international laboratory in Germany. The results show that the amount of styrene, as well as other undesirable substances such as benzene and toluene, was below 0.01 mg / kg fish in all twelve fish samples. The FDA guideline (maximum) is 90 mg of styrene per kg of fish per person per day, which is equivalent to The result of this experiment is that the consumer has to consume 9000 kg of fish daily to meet the FDA standard, which is a very unrealistic amount.
The main conclusion of this experiment is that it is not necessary to pack fresh fish fillets in plastic bags for packing in foam boxes, which are stored and transported in refrigerated and supercooled conditions. Further information is provided by dr. Björn Margeirsson, research director of Sæplast and Tempra and lecturer at the University of Iceland (bjornm@hi.is) and Sigurjón Arason, Matís' chief engineer and professor at the University of Iceland (sigurjar@hi.is).