WTO Notified of EU Amendments to Regulations on Plastic Food Contact Materials

The European Commission informed the World Trade Organization (WTO) on April 29, 2015 about its intention to significantly amend Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 for Food Contact Materials (FCM) made from plastic. Highlights of the amendments include newly added substances to the positive list of approved substances, new specific migration limits for some metals, as well as clarification on specific migration test conditions and the regulation’s scope with regard to rubber FCM.    

Food Safety in the EU Gets Boost with Stricter FCM Regulations

With regard to the amount and variety of FCM made from plastic, Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 is one of the most important legislative acts to assure food safety with regard to substance migration from food packaging or articles into foodstuff. Applicable since May 1, 2011 in the European Economic Area it has seen some amendments (e.g. Regulations (EU) No 1183/2012, 202/2014, and 2015/174), but the recently announced amendment proposals can be considered the most comprehensive so far, touching a large number of areas and clarifying issues which led to discussions in the past.

New Food Safety Management Requirements to Be Adopted in December 2015

Some highlights of the proposal are summarized in a table within the latest SafeGuards bulletin (http://newsletter.sgs.com/eNewsletterPro/uploadedimages/000006/sgs-safeguards-08115-eu-wto-regulatory-changes-plastic-food-contact-materials-a4-en-15.pdf). The proposed date of publication in the Official Journal of the European Union and adoption by Member States of the European Economic Area is December 2015.

References:

-    WTO Results List (https://docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages/FE_Search/FE_S_S006.aspx?MetaCollection=WTO&SymbolList=%22G/SPS/N/EU/127%22+OR+%22G/SPS/N/EU/127/*%22&Serial=&IssuingDateFrom=&IssuingDateTo=&CATTITLE=&ConcernedCountryList=&OtherCountryList=&SubjectList=&TypeList=&AutoSu)
-    Commission Regulation (https://docs.wto.org/dol2fe/pages/AutonomyImageProxy.aspx?TargetImage=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers%2Ewto%2Eorg%2Fcrnattachments%2F2015%2FSPS%2FEEC%2F15%5F1816%5F00%5Fe%2Epdf)  
-    Commission Regulation Annex (https://docs.wto.org/dol2fe/pages/AutonomyImageProxy.aspx?TargetImage=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers%2Ewto%2Eorg%2Fcrnattachments%2F2015%2FSPS%2FEEC%2F15%5F1816%5F01%5Fe%2Epdf)

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Contact details:

SGS Consumer Testing Services
Dr. Udo Krischke
Global Technical Manager RSTS
SGS Germany GmbH
Im Maisel 14
65232 Taunusstein
Germany

t: +49 (0)6128 – 744 235
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.sgs.com/cgnr

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