A new approach for the identification of the additives in extracts of packaging plastics, using proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H‐NMR), is presented. The technique can be used in a preliminary step for the determination of contaminants potentially released by the food packaging materials; it may greatly reduce the time required to identify the constituents of the materials, either individually or as functional classes. A classification of the EEC additives is proposed on the basis of chemical shift.1H‐NMR can also be used as a fingerprint technique in the quality control of the food packaging materials.