In February 2023, the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) updated the BfR Recommendations, Part XV on food contact silicone materials.

Its Note No. 16 has specified the test method for volatile organic matter (VOM) to be “Determination of Volatile Compounds in Silicone Consumer Products” (Bestimmung von flüchtigen Verbindungen in Bedarfsgegenständen aus Silikon). The version of this test method has been updated from the 2003 version to be 2022 version. The change compared to the previous 2003 version involves test parameters, conditioning procedures, and method uncertainty, etc.

Compared to the previous 2003 version, the major change in the 2022 version is that the test condition has been uniformly set to be “4 hours at 200 °C”, regardless the silicone materials are intended to come into contact with food at low temperatures or high temperatures.

Therefore, Intertek recommends silicone materials manufacturers optimize the production process, e.g., increase the vulcanization temperature and time, perform secondary vulcanization, to increase the product qualification rate.