The European Commission has invited feedback on regulation regarding food safety, specifically recycled plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with food.
The European Commission is consulting until 18 January on a draft Regulation that would ensure any increase in recycled content in food packaging and other food contact materials does not have a negative impact on human health through the leaching of contaminants.
If approved, the draft Regulation will repeal previous legislation on recycled plastics in food packaging, which focused on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recycling processes. For now, Annex I to the Regulation lists only post-consumer mechanical PET recycling and closed-loop recycling as suitable technologies.
The proposed Regulation would allow recycled materials and articles on the market if they are manufactured using a suitable recycling technology or a novel technology. As a result, it would allow the placing on the market of recycled plastic materials and articles produced using novel technologies, under strict conditions and for a limited period of time.
The conditions include requiring a developer to provide a notification to the local competent authority at least four months before using the new technology. The developer must also offer a short summary of the new technology and a web address for the required biannual reports detailing the latest information from all installations using the technology.
Feedback period
06 December 2021 – 18 January 2022 (midnight Brussels time)
The Commission would like to hear your views.
This draft act is open for feedback for 6 weeks. Feedback will be taken into account for finalising this initiative. Feedback received will be published on this site and therefore must adhere to the feedback rules.
