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The presence of toxic metals on paper pulp and the migration of these metals to food from the food package is receiving significant attention. The final exposure levels for consumers depend on two main processes. First the potential of metals to bind paper pulp during manufacture. Second, the metal potential to migrate from paper to food during storage and use.Binding and unbinding processes are modelled for cadmium kinetics through kinetic approaches.The cadmium concentration in paper pulp is estimated from the cadmium concentration in the water–pulp liquor during manufacture, the temperature, and contact time. Two food simulants have been employed for desorption studies, water and acetic solution (3%, w/w). As expected, under acidic conditions desorption is total and rapid (close to 100% desorption reached in a few minutes). However, the desorption of cadmium into the neutral food simulant depends on the initial cadmium concentration in the paper pulp, temperature and contact time. Surface response curves for each combination are presented.Temperature did not affect cadmium binding, but played a significant role for the desorption processes into the neutral food simulant.The proposed equations offer a good fitting of the experimental values, with p<0.001 and residuals within a factor of 3 for over 99% of the measured data. These models allow estimations of the expected exposure levels in consumers, on the basis of manufacture and use conditions. Linking the expected exposure with toxicity thresholds, such as the admissible daily intake (ADI), would allow a scientific assessment of the maximum acceptable cadmium levels in water–pulp liquors during manufacture and in the final paper pulp on the basic of the use patterns of each food packaging material. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]