EU may initiate legislation on non-plastic food contact materials

EU’s JRC (Joint Research Centre) launches a study to evaluate whether additional EU measures are necessary on non-plastic food contact materials (FCMs). The study, which is to be completed at the beginning of next year, will collect information in the EU-wide to assess the effectiveness of existing supervision measures such as law standards.

EU sets out general safety requirements on all FCMs and general obligations of manufacturing practice (GMP). The rules, independent from other regulations on FCMs, belong to a separate regulation system.

The EU plastics Regulation has a positive list of materials and additives allowed in plastic food packaging, but this does not apply to printing inks, lacquers or adhesives. National legislation is in place in the majority of EU State Members, setting out individual rules on different materials and substances. In the absence of specific EU measures, State Members may maintain or adopt their own national provisions on food contact materials. These may differ from one Member State to another. So it can hinder the free movement of those materials and articles. For inks industry, trade barriers take shape due to every country has its own rules. So legislation at the EU level is required to regulate the migration of hazardous substances in printing inks into food.

JRC’s study is to set “baseline” to support EU DG SANTE policy in establishing a baseline of the current situation concerning food contact materials for which there are no specific EU harmonised measures.

JRC’s workplan is to:

1. provide a compilation of existing measures, such as regulatory frameworks at national level, provisions on good manufacturing practices, and industry codes of practice and guidance documents;
2. gain an overview of market information, concerning the different supply chains involved for each FCM that is not subject to any specific harmonised measures at EU level;
3. compile collected data in a format that will make it easy to evaluate; and
4. analyse the efficiency and effectiveness of the measures identified above, and point out potential barriers to trade and costs and impacts of these.

News has it that China is also integrating and optimising related regulations on its FCMs currently. A relatively systematic regulation system is expected to go public by the end of 2015. In addition, China’s General Rules for Migration Test is also in preparation.

At that time, major changes may occur to China’s FCM system: a series of more optimised standards compared to previous ones, a system that more in line with developed countries, new regulation and standards for imported products in China.

So related enterprises should take measures in advance to avoid any loss.

【中文版】