Food legislation and food safety - January 2019

Food Contact Materials Legislation
Keller & Heckman has republished a nice overview of the Regulation of Food Packaging in the US, including a brief historical overview and the connection with Food Packaging Regulation in the EU and other jurisdictions.
According to a new report from the European Court of Auditors, the EU food safety system is overstretched. They say the European Commission and the Member States do not have the capacity to fully implement the system.
On 11 January 2019, the European Commission published the 12th amendment to the Plastics Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 in the Official Journal of the European Union. PackagingLaw gives a concise overview of the main changes.
The Eurofins Newsflash of January 2019 mentions that Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) has published draft amendments to the Food Sanitation Act with the intention to implement positive list system for food contact materials.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has sent a press release (653 kB) about new Indian food packaging regulations that would raise the bar for food safety.

BPA and Phthalates
Recycling Laws International reports that the European Commission announced on 17 December that four phthalates - DEHP, BBP, DBP and DIBP – will be restricted in “all consumer items containing these substances” through an amendment to the EU Reach Regulation. The restriction will take effect in June 2020.
EFSA is still working on its re-evaluation of BPA. The notes of the working group meeting in December (347 kB) have been published.
Some scientific research articles about BPA and phthalates have been published. For example: Exposure to chemicals during pregnancy is not associated with an increase in blood pressure and Assessment of estrogenic compounds in paperboard for dry food packaging.

Labelling
How would a hard Brexit change exporting products marked with the E-mark? Jeroen Rommerts, expert of the Dutch institute NMi explains the consequences in a post on LinkedIn (in Dutch). He refers to the British Weights and Measures (Packaged Goods) Regulations.
The US FDA announced that 1 January 2022, will be the uniform compliance date for final food labelling regulations that are issued in calendar years 2019 and 2020.
The Punjab Food Authority (PFA) has banned the use of fruit pictures on the packaging of carbonated drinks and other flavoured beverages that do not fit the minimum fruit ingredients criteria, says Food Navigator-Asia.
After complaints from FoodWatch, “No added sugar” claims have to be removed from several products in The Netherlands. The Dutch Advertising Authority has made a special announcement about the cases (in Dutch).

Perfluoroalkylated substances (PFAs)
EFSA has published a Scientific Opinion about the substance that can migrate from certain greaseproof packaging materials.
Safer Chemicals Healthy Families (SCHF) and Toxic-Free Future released a new report entitled “Take out toxics: PFAS chemicals in food packaging” (Food Packaging Forum reported).
On 6 November 2018, the Washington State Department of Ecology published the PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) alternatives assessment project summary for food packaging inside Ecology’s PFSA Chemical Action Plan (CAP).

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