Indeed, at the moment there is no co-ordinated system in place for regulating the recycling of food contact plastics. The Food Standards Agency is therefore keen to support the intention to make harmonised rules that will apply across the EU, subject to ensuring that they provide a good framework that allows businesses to operate within a system that provides effective protection for consumers.
"This proposal should not have any great detrimental effect," the FSA said in a statement. "It will provide beneficial protection for the public while giving businesses a common set of rules to comply with across the EU. Consumers will also know that wherever they are in the EU, any recycled food contact plastics have been manufactured to a consistent standard."
However, it first intends to allow those in the UK food packaging industry to air their queries about the proposed changes.
The Commission's proposal deals with mechanical processes for recycling food contact plastic for further use in contact with food. Under the proposals, a system will be put in place that will allow a person or company to apply for an authorisation to use a specified process to recycle food contact plastics for further use in contact with food.
The application will then be examined by the European Food Safety Authority before it makes a recommendation to the European Commission. The Commission will then decide whether to grant an authorisation, with the intention of ensuring that the public is protected from unsafe contaminants in the recycled plastic.
The Commission believes that the proposals will also give the system of granting authorisations greater transparency, and help to ensure that the public is protected from unsafe contaminants in the recycled plastic. Other bodies will be able to use the authorisation process under licence, and these will be audited annually.
This, says the Commission, will ensure that they continue to comply with the terms of the authorisation that include having a quality assurance system in place.
The auditors will have to meet specified criteria before they are accepted by a Member State national authority to do this audit work. Authorisations that have been granted can be changed, suspended or revoked. The materials and articles produced by the recycling process will have to comply with rules about labelling and traceability and they will have to have declarations of compliance with the rules supported by proper records.
The proposal also includes provisions on confidentiality and data protection.
In the UK all food contact plastics have to meet the requirements of Commission Directive 2002/72/EC on plastic materials and articles intended to be brought into contact with food. These rules are given effect in UK law by the Plastic Materials and Articles in Contact with Food Regulations 1998 (as amended).
"We should particularly like to know whether there are particular difficulties or overbearing costs for anyone likely to be affected by these proposals" said the FSA. Responses to the FSA's consultation are requested by 3 June 2004.