Global Food Contact Materials Regulations

This module will look at Chinese regulations that directly impact FCMs and food contact articles. In China national standards are prefixed GB. Before taking a deep dive into the regulations, the webinar will look at how China, under the general safety standard GB 4806.1-2016 defines FCMs. 

This will be followed by an update of the food contact material regulations for 2023, which will introduce each of the standards published/updated this year, plastic, rubber, printing ink, multilayer, metal. The details of 2023 update of the General Principles for Migration Tests of FCMs (GB 31604.1) will also be introduced.

In addition, examples of food contact substances, including resins and additives, that have been approved by the Chinese authorities in 2023 will be presented.

During this module, you will learn about:

• which Chinese standards apply to the FCMs you are interested in, including plastic resins, plastic articles,rubber, adhesive, printing ink, ceramic, glass, paper, paperboard, bamboo and wood, multilayer, paints and coatings (or films);
• which food contact additives have already been approved in China by the country's National Health Commission (NHC);
• what the restrictions are for certain key-listed food contact additives or FCM-substances with respect to their specific migration limits (SMLs);
• how to carry out a worst-case calculation (WCC) in cases of missing experimental or theoretical (modelling) migration data;
• what migration testing conditions are to be applied, with case study examples;
• what the analytical challenges are during the identification of non-intentionally added substances (Nias) that migrate into food under intended conditions of use;
• what the key steps are when considering the risk assessment of FCM-substances migrating into food;
• what petition steps need to be taken to get a new food contact additive listed in China;
• how to demonstrate compliance with food contact applications in the above-mentioned markets. 

Ms Liu Hui, MSc

Regulatory Affairs Manager, Food Contact Materials, knoell Shanghai, China