Food legislation and food safety – October 2024
Food Contact Materials (FCMs) – rules and regulations
China: Keller and Heckman reports that the CFSA is soliciting comments on one new resin and expanded usage for four additives and one resin for FCMs. Japan: FPF reports that the CAA has published revisions (82 kB) to the FCM testing standards. One of the primary revisions is the establishment of an overall migration test, to measure the total amount of substances that could migrate from packaging materials into food simulants. US: The FDA has added four new substances and five other new substances to its Inventory of Effective Food Contact Substances (FCS) Notifications, Keller and Heckman reports. California: Keller and Heckman also reports that AB 347 was recently signed, requiring the DTSC to enforce prohibitions on the use of PFAS in plant-based food packaging.
Claims, marking and labelling
The WHO has published a draft guideline on nutrition labelling policies. Belgium: A national inspection by FAVV (in Dutch) found that more than half of the labels were not in compliance. France: In February 2024, the government published a decree (in French) prohibiting the use of animal designations including “entrecôte,” “filet” and “ham” for non-meat products. Recently, the EU Court of Justice (119 kB) ruled that this prohibition is in violation of the EU regulations. Italy: Draft legislation, making it compulsory to inform consumers about the price of products with reduced content and increased or unchanged selling price (shrinkflation), has been sent to the EC. NL: In response to a PVV motion (in Dutch), minister Wiersma indicated in a letter to the House (in Dutch) that she will discuss the possibility of the standard use of a Dutch flag on products grown in the Netherlands with retail and producers. The Kassa episode (in Dutch) about the sense and nonsense of the Nutri-Score on 28 September 2024 has led to Parliamentary questions (in Dutch). The Advertising Code Committee (RCC) has ruled (in Dutch) that the packaging of ‘free-range’ and organic eggs was misleading at five supermarkets during the bird flu housing measures period. This follows complaints from Foodwatch (in Dutch). The messages on the egg cartons suggested an outdoor life for the hens. Slovenia: Draft legislation specifying the use of the ‘Good Choice’ label to facilitate the identification of foods with a favourable nutritional composition has been sent to the EC. UK: The government has announced that it will not proceed with the introduction of mandatory ‘not for EU’ labelling on agrifood products in Great Britain. US: California: Governor Newsom has signed AB 660 standardising date labels to create clarity for consumers.
Packaging of alcoholic drinks
Research led by University Lille finds that people tend to pay very little attention to alcohol warning labels displayed on packaging. The study (441 kB) is published in Public Health. Czech Republic: Draft legislation extending the range of maximum permitted sizes for consumer containers of alcohol has been sent to the EC. Poland: Draft legislation has been sent to the EC requiring that spirit drinks in units of up to 200 ml may only be marketed in either bottle or can packaging. This is to prevent the so-called ‘alco-pouches’.
Research on FCMs
In a study (784 kB) published in Frontiers in Toxicology, FPF researchers identified 189 potential breast carcinogens detected in food packaging and other FCMs on the market. Reusable plastic drinking bottles for children leak chemicals, according to research (1.57 MB) by McGill University commissioned by the Tegengif-Erase all Toxins Foundation. Twenty-two of the thirty-nine bottle types examined were shown to leach DIBP. UBC researchers have developed a tool to measure plastic released from everyday sources like SUP cups.
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