In publishing a consultation on the UK's proposed new law to implement the EU directive, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) said it would also consolidate three other laws and amendments on plastic materials into a new, single UK legislation.
This will make it simpler for food companies to follow the rules, the regulator stated in a consultation document, which was published last week along with a draft of the legislation. Currently, the UK's legislation on food contact plastics are spread across five pieces of law.
The proposed UK law would set out a list of offences where products subject to the provisions are in breach of them, defences against alleged breaches of the European regulations and penalties.
The EU regulation consolidates two directives on epoxy derivatives intended to come into contact with foods and adds more safety requirements on their use in food contact plastics, adhesives and coatings.
From 1 January the EC regulation permits trade in the use of materials and articles containing 2,2-Bis(4-hydroxyphenyl) propane bis(2,3-epoxypropyl) ether (Badge) throughout the EU. It also re-affirms the ban on the use of BFDGE (Bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)methane bis (2,3-epoxypropyl)ethers) and NOGE (Novolac glycidyl ethers).
It permits the use of Badge in food contact plastics, adhesives and coatings providing any migration of the chemical and its hydrolysed derivatives are within nine milligrams per kilogram of food. The previous limit was three mg/kg .
The higher limit is seen by the industry as an opportunity to expand the use of existing products and allow new materials to be developed, the FSA noted.
The limit can be translated as nine milligrams per six decimetres squared in cases where articles are containers or are comparable to containers. It also applies to containers that can be filled with a capacity of less than 500 millilitres or more than ten litres.
It applies to sheet film or other material that cannot be filled or for which it is impracticable to estimate the relationship between the surface area and the quantity of food.
When Badge migration occurs with particular chlorohydrins the sum of their migration may not exceed one milligram per kilogram of food or one milligram per six decimetres squared for the other packaging formats.
The EC regulation also requires that during the marketing of a product, the materials and articles containing Badge and its derivatives shall be accompanied by a written declaration of compliance. The compliance must be documented and made available to regulators on demand. The requirement does not apply to the retail stage of the product's distribution.
The FSA has set 30 May as the target date for making the new regulations. The public consultation ends 5 May.