What Are Extractables And Leachables?

In the cosmetic and personal care industry, Extractables and Leachables are used to measure product safety.

What should I know about this

Extractables are any ingredients that can be dissolved in a solvent or alcohol to form a liquid solution. Extractable compounds include dyes, fragrances, solvents, stabilizers, and preservatives. Extractability is determined by measuring how much an ingredient dissolves in a given amount of time. If a lot of the material is soluble, it will have higher extractability than if some were disbanded. Leachables are substances that may pass through packaging materials into the product’s interior package space during storage conditions such as heat or pressure. There are a few different types of leachables. One type is extractable compounds that migrate from the packaging into the product, sometimes called ingresses (or egress), such as wicking and sorption/absorption. Extractables can also be measured by placing an ingredient inside a package or bottle to see how much might pass through over time; this test is known as migration testing. Leaching may occur when small amounts of substances dissolve in the solvent (liquid, gaseous or solid phases), resulting in gradual loss of material due to its extraction into another substance like food during storage conditions like temperature and pressure.

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