Ensuring Chemical Safety and Compliance in High-Performance Stretch Wrap

Ensuring Chemical Safety and Compliance in High-Performance Stretch Wrap

Background & Client Challenge

Industrial stretch films play an important role in protecting food, medical, and consumer goods throughout transportation and storage. However, certain chemical substances used in packaging materials, including phthalate plasticizers and alkylphenols, may migrate into packaged products and raise potential safety and compliance concerns. As global chemical regulations continue to tighten, requirements such as EU REACH, RoHS, FDA food-contact regulations, and California Proposition 65 place increasing restrictions on substances of concern, include certain Substances of Very High Concern (SVHCs). For manufacturers and suppliers serving international markets, demonstrating that packaging materials meet applicable chemical safety requirements has therefore become an important part of product quality assurance.

To support international market access and customer compliance requirements, the client commissioned an independent evaluation of its stretch film material for potential trace chemical contaminants. The testing program focused on bisphenols, alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEOs), alkylphenols, and phthalates, with the objective of determining whether these substances were present at detectable or regulated levels and generating reliable third-party analytical data to support product safety assessment and compliance documentation.

Our Methodology: High-Sensitivity Screening

Our laboratory developed a comprehensive analytical program to evaluate a broad range of phenolic compounds and phthalate plasticizers commonly monitored in polymer-based packaging materials. The analysis was performed using advanced instrumentation, including high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), Quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (Q-TOFMS), and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), enabling sensitive detection and identification of trace-level chemical substances in polymer materials.

The applied analytical methods achieved reporting limits ranging from approximately 100 µg/kg to 1,000 µg/kg, depending on the target compound.

Analytical Results

The comprehensive screening confirmed that none of the evaluated phenolic compounds, alkylphenol ethoxylates, alkylphenols, or phthalate compounds w

ere detected in the tested stretch film sample above the applicable laboratory reporting limits. These results provided objective analytical confirmation of the stretch film's chemical profile and supported the client's efforts in maintaining product safety and regulatory compliance.

Value Delivered to the Client

Through independent third-party chemical analysis, the client obtained reliable verification that the tested stretch film did not contain detectable levels of the evaluated phenols, APEOs, alkylphenols, or phthalates. The test results supported the client's quality management system, strengthened customer confidence in packaging material safety, and provided technical documentation for regulatory review and global market requirements.