Analysis of Migration Behavior of Food Pollutants During Online Food Delivery: A Case Study in Xi'an

Abstract

The market of online food delivery (OFD) in China is developing rapidly, and has caused frequent food safety incidents. In the past, researchers focused on food safety issues related to food suppliers, but little research has been conducted on food contamination during the food delivery process. In particular, no study has investigated the transfer of pollutants from packaging materials to the delivered food. The paper presents an experiment on the migration of food contact materials, and analyzes the migration behavior patterns of plasticizers, as well as the resulting impact on food quality under different temperature, time, and simulant conditions. The results show that temperature and material are the significant factors that affect plasticizer migration. The amount of plasticizer migration surged following the change of the temperature, while the effect of temperature varied for different simulants. The optimal delivery time and temperature for OFD with different packaging materials are found in our study.