100 BOOK REVIEWS

Food Science reviews, vol. 2. Chemical migration from food packaging

D. H . Watson and M . N . Meah (eds) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, London, UK. Ellis Horwood, London (1993), ISBN 13-058547-5 Price: f15.95.

This second volume of the review series examines the EC approach to controlling chemical migration from food packaging into food by the use of so-called food simulants.

It contains six articles by members of a UK Government team concerned with negotiating controls in Brussels. Four are by Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food personnel, one jointly with authors from the Leatherhead Food R.A., one from the Chemistry Department of De Montfort University and one by authors in Pira International.

The first two articles simply record the current position on test methods and legislation, respect- ively, and contain very little new material. Articles three and four on high-temperature testing and boil-in-bag laminate migration contain much inter- esting information not previously published and provide 77 and 23 references, respectively. They are the best two in the book. The survey on the use of packaging in the home is limited mainly to cling film and tin cans, with a smattering of other data, and I found it not very useful and rather con- fusing. The final article on modelling migration from packaging into food actually deals with modelling migration into some of the food simulants used in testing and concludes that in the most important case where the food and the

packaging interact modelling has not been very successful. The work of Adcock et al. (p. 145) is reported briefly, stating that although the authors produced a reasonable pictorial model they did not develop it on a mathematical basis, whereas in fact Adcock et al. reported that they could not find a mathematical basis. I found the book some- what disappointing overall.

F. A. Paine

Dictionary of environmental science, revised ed

Andrew Porteous John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester (1992), ISBN 0-47 1-93544- 1 . Price: E9.95.

The 439 pages (not including the prelims) of this book is packed with information and is more of a short encyclopedia than a dictionary. As the author points out in the preface, environmental matters are multi-faceted and both sources of information and enquirers after the same will have many different backgrounds. Do not there- fore expect to find that words will necessarily have exactly the same treatment as that to which you are accustomed. With my background of packaging many words that I might have expected to find were not there or were described under a dif- ferent heading. However, it is a very valuable little book, which is not only good for reference but also interesting for browsing. The binding leaves some- thing to be desired because many pages tend to become detached and fall out. Nevertheless a well worthwhile purchase.

F. A. Paine