Food legislation and food safety - April 2019
Food contact material legislation
In response to the current evaluation of EU legislation on food contact materials (FCM) that closes on 6 May 2019, Chemtrust has published their Five key principles for future EU regulation of chemicals in food contact materials.
Food Packaging Forum reports that the UK keeps FCM legislation in no-deal Brexit. The UK Parliament has agreed on a statutory instrument that will govern food contact materials in this case.
Keller and Heckman has published a review article about China's Food and Food Packaging Laws. They expect to see a continuous roll-out of regulations and standards in 2019 to accommodate the restructured food regulatory system. In the article they take a closer look at what they have seen in 2018 and how things may play out in 2019.
PFAs, BPA and phthalates
SGS reports that Korea revises food contact standards for articles for young children. The provision to prohibit BPA, BBP and DBP in FCMs for infants and children will become effective on 1 January 2020.
On 15 April 2019, RIVM published a report about Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in food contact materials. They state that “at present there is not enough information about these PFASs to make reliable exposure estimations and risk assessments”.
An article about PFOA and PFOS levels in microwave paper packaging between 2005 and 2018 (abstract) was published in Food Additives & Contaminants: Part B.
Food Chemistry published an article about Simultaneous migration of bisphenol compounds and trace metals in canned vegetable food (abstract).
Several non-profit organisations are trying to create awareness for substances that can enter our food through packaging. US environmental protection organisation PEER calls for action on stemming massive introductions of "Short-Chain" PFAS chemicals. At the same time, the Environmental Defense Fund is looking Beyond PFAS: More toxic chemicals of concern in food packaging. CHEMTrust has put the focus on bisphenols and phthalates with the article Synthetic chemicals in our bodies: what is our ‘body burden’?
Labelling
EVMI wrote an article (in Dutch) about a Royal Decree (in Dutch) that was published in the Belgian Official Journal to support the use of Nutri-score labelling in Belgium. Nutrition Insight has also published an article about traffic light labelling, based on research by Queen Mary University London that was published in Appetite.
An article about the relationship between food date labels and food discards has published in Waste Management. The research is referenced in an opinion article in FoodDive about how “Standardized date label legislation is a crucial step in addressing food waste”.
Primary and recycled materials for food contact
CEPI announced in a press release that the paper and board manufacturing industry, as well as converting sectors have published the completely rewritten voluntary ‘Food Contact Guidelines for the Compliance of Paper and Board Materials and Articles’.
Smithers Pira has published an infographic about using recycled plastics for food contact materials. You can download a more detailed article after filling in your details.
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