Determination of cosmetic ingredients causing extrusion‐coated and adhesive joint multilayer packaging delamination

In order to study the effect of several compounds on packaging stability, different cosmetic ingredients at two concentration levels were added to a NeoPCL® (Acofarma, Terrassa, Spain) water emulsion, and the preparations packed in sachets and stored at 40°C during 3 months. After that, the packaging was subjected to a T‐peel test and headspace solid‐phase microextraction gas chromatography mass spectrometry (HS‐SPME‐GC‐MS) analysis. The HS‐SPME‐GC‐MS analyses were performed using a 75 μm carboxen polydimethylsiloxane fibre to check for the presence of the studied analytes in the inner layers. The study revealed that the presence of a phenyl and a hydroxyl group in the compound structure lead to an important loss of adhesion between packaging layers joined by an adhesive. The interaction between the cosmetic ingredient and the adhesive was proposed as the main cause of the loss of adhesion. However, extrusion‐coating packaging was more susceptible to delamination, particularly with the volatile compounds. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.