legislation-profile

Recycled Plastic Food Contact Materials

Commission Regulation (EU) 2022/1616 of 15 September 2022 on recycled plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with foods, and repealing Regulation (EC) No 282/2008

Scope

The regulation is a specific measure within the meaning of Article 5 of Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004. The Regulation lays down rules for: (a) the placing on the market of plastic materials and articles falling within the scope of Article 1(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004, containing plastic originating from waste or manufactured therefrom; (b) the development and operation of recycling technologies, processes and installations, to produce recycled plastic for use in those plastic materials and articles; (c) the use in contact with food of recycled plastic materials and articles and of plastic materials and articles which are intended to be recycled. For purposes of the Regulation, the following definitions apply: ‘recycled plastic’ means plastic resulting from the decontamination process of a recycling process and plastic resulting from subsequent post-processing operations and that is not yet transformed into recycled plastic materials and articles; ‘recycled plastic materials and articles’ means food contact materials and articles in their finished state, and that are made either fully or partly of recycled plastic; ‘recycling technology’ means a specific combination of physical or chemical concepts, principles, and practices to recycle a waste stream of a certain type and collected in a certain way into recycled plastic materials and articles of a specific type and with a specific intended use, and includes a decontamination technology; ‘recycling process’ means a sequence of unit operations that is intended to manufacture recycled plastic materials and articles through pre-processing, a decontamination process, and post-processing, and which is based on a specific recycling technology; Please note that Regulation (EU) 2022/1616 has repealed Regulation (EC) No 282/2008 on recycled plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with foods. Regulation (EU) 2022/1616 began to apply from 10 October 2022. Nevertheless, Articles 31 and 33 provide for various transitional periods, and allow food business operators to use recycled plastic materials and articles legally placed on the market to pack food and place that on the market until exhaustion of stocks.

Exemptions

Exemptions are defined in Article 1(3): Regulation (EU) 2022/1616 shall not apply to the use of waste to manufacture substances included in the Union list of authorised substances in accordance with Article 5 of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011, and to manufacture substances subject to Article 6(1), (2), and (3)(a) thereof, when intended for subsequent use in accordance with that Regulation.

Regulatory activities

1. Regulatory compliance Recycled plastic materials and articles shall only be placed on the market if certain requirements are met (Article 3): - requirements set out in Regulation (EU) No 10/2011, Chapters II, III and V - use of suitable recycling technology (Annex I), and, where relevant, use of authorized recycling process (Chapter V and Annex I) - or use of a novel technology (Chapter IV) - information is entered in the Union Register (Article 24). Additional requirements are laid down for waste collection and pre-collection (Article 6), decontamination (Article 7), post-processing (Article 8), monitoring and reporting of contamination levels (Article 13), compliance monitoring summary sheet for decontamination installations (Article 26). 2. Labelling requirements Individual batches of recycled plastic and of recycled plastic materials and articles shall be subject to a single document or record regarding their quality, and shall be identified by a unique number and the name of the manufacturing stage (Article 5): a) Declaration of compliance for recyclers and converters (Article 29 and Annex III) b) Containers of recycled plastic delivered to converters shall be labelled with: - the symbol defined in Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004; - the symbol RIN and the registry number of the decontamination installation where the recycled plastic was manufactured; - the symbol BATCH No followed by the batch number; - the percentage by weight of the recycled content; - the maximum percentage by weight of the recycled content that final recycled plastic materials and articles may contain, if this is less than 100 %; - when the declaration provides additional instructions, the symbol defined in ISO 7000 with reference number 1641. Detailed technical requirements (such as dimensions for the label) or derogations are laid down in Article 5(4). c) Labelling of recycled materials or articles provided to food business operators or to final consumers: labelling shall include restrictions and specifications from Annex I concerning the use of recycled plastic materials or articles manufactured with a suitable recycling technology, and, where relevant, restrictions and specifications for the authorized recycling process 3. Registration requirements A public Union Register of novel technologies, recyclers, recycling processes, recycling schemes and decontamination installations is established (Chapter VI). Notification to national competent authorities is also required. 4. Control Requirements for traceability and quality assurance systems certified by a third party apply (Article 6), monitoring and reporting of contamination levels (Article 13) may apply.

Relevant product types

Not applicable

Reference documents

Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2002 laying down the general principles and requirements of food law, establishing the European Food Safety Authority and laying down procedures in matters of food safety Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs Commission Regulation (EC) No 2023/2006 of 22 December 2006 on good manufacturing practice for materials and articles intended to come into contact with food Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on waste and repealing certain Directives Commission Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 of 14 January 2011 on plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with food Regulation (EU) 2017/625 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2017 on official controls and other official activities performed to ensure the application of food and feed law, rules on animal health and welfare, plant health and plant protection products

Obligations based on CLP hazard class

No

Obligations based on properties of concerns

No

EU-level occupational exposure limits

No

EU-level emission limit values

No

Industry submission system in place

Yes A public Union Register of novel technologies, recyclers, recycling processes, recycling schemes and decontamination installations is established. Operators are assigned a unique number (Articles 24 and 25).

Owner

DG SANTE

Update process

DG SANTE / EFSA The list of suitable recycling technologies (Annex I) may be updated, and novel technologies may be recognized as suitable by the Commission, after taking into account the opinion of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) (Articles 15 and 16)

Amendments

Corrigendum, OJ L 244, 21 September 2022

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