This study is part of a larger project aimed at establishing criteria to ensure the quality and safety-in-use of recycled and re-used plastics for food packaging. A major concern is that plastic materials can interact with chemicals to a greater or lesser extent. As a consequence, refillable containers may be contaminated by migration of harmful substances into the plastic material due to misuse by consumers before return. On the other hand, there is currently neither any specific national or EU regulation nor a standard test procedure available which could be applied by industry or enforcement laboratories to meet this situation appropriately. In this study, a relative simple inertness test which focuses on the interaction of PET bottle wall strips with a selection of model contaminants was investigated. The model contaminants were selected to include four different sets of chemical functional classes (set A, alcohol-type compounds; set B, ester/ketone type compounds; set C, hydrocarbon-type compounds; set D, chlorinated hydrocarbons). A simple gas chromatographic method using flame ionization detection was developed to allow quantification of the whole range of model contaminants. Linearity and reproducibility of the calibration curves for all contaminants were excellent, which indicates the validity and efficacy of the proposed methodology. The sorption experiments with PET bottle wall strips showed that significant amounts of chemicals can be absorbed into the plastic material if misused, thus establishing a remigration potential in the bottle material after refilling. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.