Release of volatile compounds from cooking plastic bags under different heating sources

•High temperatures lead to the formation of aroma compounds in cooking bags•Aldehydes and ketones were the major responsible for the odors detected•Migration to food simulants fulfilled the European Regulation EU/10/2020•27 compounds from bags were transferred to chicken under worst case conditions•11 The use of packaging materials at very high temperatures, such as in-pack cooking, could lead to the formation of odorous compounds and also to the transference of migrants to food. In this work, the effect of high temperature or microwave cooking has been studied for 2 different cooking bags. The study was performed by gas-chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry and to olfactometric detection (GC-MS-O). The results showed that the bags heated in a conventional oven had a higher effect on the increment of odor impact compounds from the packaging than those heated in microwaves. Aldehydes and ketones were the major responsible for the odors detected in the olfactometry. Migration experiments to different food simulants (ethanol 10%, vegetable oil and ethanol 95%) and food samples (chicken) were also performed. In migration to food simulants, migrants were only detected in ethanol 10 %: 1-nonanol was detected below the specific migration limit established in the European Regulations and nonanal and decanal were below 10 ng/g. In migration to chicken a total of 27 compounds, mostly aldehydes, were transferred to it under the worst case migration conditions.