Introduction

Food contact materials (FCMs) are all materials and articles intended to come into contact with food, such as packaging and containers, kitchen equipment, cutlery and dishes, processing equipment. These can be made from a variety of materials including plastics, rubber, paper and metal.

European legislation for food contact materials also covers materials that come into contact with water intended for human consumption, e.g. bottles, but excludes fixed public or private water supply equipment.

The safety of food contact materials must be evaluated as chemicals can migrate from the materials into food in order to secure a high level of protection of human health.

General information on Food Contact Materials

• EFSA (European Food Safety Authority);
• Short video on "food contact materials".

European Union

• Framework Regulation (basic requirements for FCMs): REGULATION (EC) No 1935/2004 of 27 October 2004 on materials and articles intended to come into contact with food (Consolidated Text).
  The purpose of the Regulation is to ensure the effective functioning of the internal market for materials and articles intended to come into contact directly or indirectly with food and to secure a high level of protection of human health and the interests of consumers. It lists 17 categories for which harmonized specific measures may be adopted by the Commission on an EU level.

• EU Harmonized Measures : Plastics, Ceramics, Regenerated cellulose film and Active & Intelligent materials;

• Not harmonized measures in the EU : In the absence of specific EU measures, the EU countries may maintain or adopt their own national provisions on FCMs. The Council of Europe has also published some recommendations .
  
  

• • EU summary sheet on food contact materials for packaging;
    
    

  • EU Reference Laboratorie s for Food Contact Materials;
    
    

  • COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 2023/2006 of 22 December 2006 on good manufacturing practice (GMP) for materials and articles intended to come into contact with food ( Consolidated Text ): The materials must be manufactured in compliance with GMP, so that any potential transfer to foods does not raise safety concerns, change the composition of the food in an unacceptable way or have adverse effects on the taste and/or odor of foods;
    
    

  • EU summary sheet on GMP;
    
    

  • COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) No 10/2011 of 14 January 2011 on plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with food ( Consolidated Text ): Specific requirements on substances and general restrictions on plastic materials and articles are set out. Only the substances included in the Union list of authorized substances ( Annex I ) may be intentionally used for the manufacture of plastic layers in plastic materials and articles. According to Article 9 these substances shall be subject to specific migration limit, overall migration limit, restrictions and specifications as set out in Annex I;
    
    

  • EU summary sheet on plastic materials and articles in contact with food;
    
    

  • COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 282/2008 of 27 March 2008 on recycled plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with foods ( Consolidated Text );

    
    

  • COUNCIL DIRECTIVE of 15 October 1984 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to ceramic articles intended to come into contact with foodstuffs (84/500/EEC) ( Consolidated Text );
    

    
    

  • COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 450/2009 of 29 May 2009 on active and intelligent materials and articles intended to come into contact with food ( No consolidated text yet );
    
    

  • Some recommendations of the Council of Europe related to food contact materials:

• • • Silicons used for food contact applications ;

    • Rubber products intended to come into contact with foodstuffs ;

    • Paper and board materials and articles intended to come into contact with foodstuffs;

    • Coatings intended to come into contact with foodstuffs ;

    • Aids to polymerization (technological coadjuvants) for plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with foodstuff;

    • Cork stoppers and other cork materials and articles intended to come into contact with foodstuffs:

The Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) has drawn up recommendations for a number of food contact materials and articles that have not yet been specifically regulated by law, for example for paper and board, rubber or silicone. The BfR Recommendations are not legal provisions. However, they do represent the current state of the scientific and technical knowledge for the conditions under which consumer goods made of materials such as silicons, paper and rubber meet the requirements of Art. 31(1) of the German Food, Commodities and Feed Code (Lebensmittel-, Bedarfsgegenstände- und Futtermittelgesetzbuch, LFGB) as well as those of Art. 3(1)a of the Regulation (EC) No. 1935/2004 in respect to their health safety.
BfR publishes updated recommendations in the “Database BfR Recommendations on Food Contact Materials”.

Switzerland

• “Ordonnance” of the Federal Department of Home Affairs (DFI) on materials and articles intended to come into contact with foodstuffs.
  

Brazil

• Relevant regulations can be found in RegBase:
  Search in the Sinequa for REGWATCH search engine (click here ) with the following criteria:
  Country = Brazil, Topic = PRODUCTS > Food and Feed applications > Food Contact, Document type = Abstracts
  

China

• Relevant regulations can be found in RegBase:
  Search in the Sinequa for REGWATCH search engine (click here ) with the following criteria:
  Country = China, Topic = PRODUCTS > Food and Feed applications > Food Contact, Document type = Abstracts > Legislation