EN 14233:2002

This European Standard specifies methods to measure the temperature reached by plastics materials and articles in contact with foodstuffs during microwave heating and conventional oven heating in order to select the appropriate temperature for migration testing. It is applicable to all plastics materials and articles for which the food(s) with which they will come into contact under worst foreseeable conditions of use is/are known. This includes pre-packaged foods such as ready meals which will be heated in the packaging, and for foods which need some pre-preparation but which include the cooking container in the pack, e.g. cake mixes. The method is also suitable for plastics materials and articles to be used for preparing foods in the home or for use in commercial food preparation where the article is supplied as a stand-alone item, i.e. not containing or not including food at the point of sale.NOTEAlthough the method has been developed for plastics materials and articles, it is also applicable to other packaging materials including paper and board, rubber and elastomers, ceramics, glass etc. Temperature measurements using conventional oven heating are suitable for metal materials but these items should generally not be heated in microwave ovens due to possible problems with arcing.