EC Issues Guidelines for the Use of Recycled Plastics in Food Packs

New European Commission (EC) regulations on plastics stipulate that recycled plastics which come into contact with foods should only be obtained from processes that have been given the green light by the EFSA.

04/07/08 The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has issued industry guidelines governing the use of recycled plastics in food packaging to help protect consumers from ingesting contaminants that could migrate from packaging into food.

New European Commission (EC) regulations on plastics stipulate that recycled plastics which come into contact with foods should only be obtained from processes that have been given the green light by the EFSA.

Dick Searle, chief executive of The Packaging Federation, welcomed the move. "It is interesting in the sense that at the end of the day there has to be a set of guidelines," he said.

"All organisations, particularly WRAP, have found that one of the impediments has always been the quality of recycled plastic packaging for food contact."

The European food standards watchdog now becomes responsible for evaluating the safety of mechanical recycling and manufacturing methods in which recovered plastics are ground into small pieces, decontaminated and then processed into new packaging.

The EFSA's guidelines do not cover the chemical de-polymerisation process, which is covered by another EU directive.

The issue of the guidelines follow a public consultation held earlier this year by the EFSA's Scientific Panel of Food Additives, Flavourings, Processing Aids and Materials in Contact with Food. The two-month consultation invited members of the scientific community and stakeholder to comment and drew 40 questions and comments.

Sarah Plant, industrial issues executive of the British Plastics Federation, said: "We are pleased that steps have been taken towards increasing the use of plastics recyclate in food contact applications and that the full potential of this can be realised.

"We will be examing the guidelines in full to ensure that adequate controls are in place to guarantee the exclusion of contaminanted materials while minimising the administrative burden on recyclers and processors."

Any company wishing to use recycled plastics in food packaging will need to gain approval from the EFSA, which will base its safety assessment on factors such as the quality of the recycled raw material, the efficiency of the decontamination process and the the plastic's intended use.

Once the EFSA has evaluated a particular case, its verdict will be forwarded to the EC. If the EC authorises the case, it will then be added to the register of approved recycling processes. An authorised recycling method will then fall under the remit of EU member states' own quality assurance systems.