Global food contact regulation updates for 4 th Quarter 2023

Abstract

Government agencies around the world regulate food contact materials or articles. Understanding these regulations and keeping up with the new regulations are essential for maintaining market access for food contact products. My intent is to provide global plastics food contact regulation developments and updates relevant to plastic film and sheet for food packaging.

Country

China

China published several food contact GB Standards in the September, include:

• GB 4806.7-2023,¹ National Food Safety Standard on Food Contact Use Plastic Materials and Articles.

This Standard consolidated GB 4806.6-2016 and GB 4806.7-2016. The Positive Listed polymers increased to 187 from 102 in 2016.

• GB 4806.9-2023,² National Food Safety Standard on Food Contact Use Metal Materials and Articles.

This is a revision to GB 4806.9-2016.

• GB 4806.11-2023,³ National Food Safety Standard on Food Contact Use Rubber Materials and Articles.

This is a revision to GB 4806.11-2016.

• GB 4806.13-2023,⁴ National Food Standard on Food Contact Use Composite Materials and Articles.

This is a new GB standard.

• GB 4806.14-2023,⁵ National Food Standard on Food Contact Use Printing Inks.

This is a new GB standard.

• GB 31604.1-2023,⁶ National Food Standard on the General Rules for Migration Testing for Food Contact Materials and Articles.

This is a revision to GB 31604.1-2015.

USA

Several bills are introduced in the US Congress in recent months, including:

• Senate Bill, S2844,⁷ titled Rewarding Efforts to Decrease Unrecycled Contaminants in Ecosystems Act of 2023.

• House Bill and Senate Bill, H.R.6053/S3127,⁸ titled Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act of 2023.

• House Bill, H.R.6105,⁹ titled No Toxics in Food Packaging Act of 2023.

California

Antimony trioxide is listed on California Proposition 65. On October 27, 2023, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) adopted a No Significant Risk Level (NSRL) of 0.13 μg per day for exposures to antimony trioxide by the inhalation route.

Region

EU

European Commission proposed⁹ to create Positive List for final materials or products that come into contact with drinking water. The proposed positive listing materials include list of starting substances for organic materials and groups of starting substances for organic materials; metallic materials and groups of compositions for metallic materials; organic constituents of cementitious materials and groups of organic constituents for cementitious materials; and compositions of enamels, ceramic and other inorganic materials.

Footnotes

Notes

Biography

Huqiu Zhang holds a PhD in organic chemistry and is currently a Principal at Sevee & Maher Engineers, a consulting firm. She provides technical consultation for product chemical safety and global regulatory compliance to clients in food contact material (including virgin and Post-Consumer recycled materials), food packaging and consumer product industries. Her expertise includes regulatory compliance strategies, implementation, and government agencies pre-market clearance and approval for new food contact materials; supply chain chemical management program and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP); business Due Diligence, chemical hazard identification, exposure evaluation and risk assessment. She played a critical role in opening a communication channel between the US FDA and China MOH agencies. She built relationship and establishing project collaboration between the US SPI and China MOH agency in the areas of food contact material safety and regulations. Her working experiences extends to the whole supply chain of food packaging and consumer product, with chemical industry (BASF/Ciba Specialty Chemical); material and compounding industry (GE Plastics); food/beverage industry (The Coca Cola Company); Testing, Inspection and Certification Industries (Intertek). Huqiu is on the Board of Technical Adviser for Zymtronix, a multi-scale platform technology startup that revolutionizes the use of enzymes and leads the next wave of improvements in Green Chemistry and Biocatalysis. She has spoken at numerous international conferences in her areas of expertise.