What are the latest trends in the food contact sector?
What are the big issues affecting the food contact sector in 2018? Vanessa Zainzinger explores what you should be keeping an eye out for in this fast-moving area.
Lately, decision-makers around the world have been upping efforts to make the materials we use to package our food safer.
Central to this discussion have been calls from industry and NGOs to harmonise the way food packaging safety is addressed across Europe. The European Commission is evaluating how best to regulate paper, board, coatings, inks and adhesives used to package food and plans to adopt legislation on printed food contact materials by mid-2018. The latter could take the form of a system that is unusual in Europe: Brussels is considering shifting the responsibilities for ensuring compliance with the law, from the regulatory authorities, to designated laboratories and consultants. These would identify migrating substances in an FCM and carry out toxicology testing, then evaluate their risk and propose how they should be regulated. All eyes are on the Commission to announce which route its new printed food contact legislation will follow; and whether it will be adapted to other food contact materials as well.
Elsewhere, authorities are following trends of regulating food contact materials with "positive list" systems. Japan is aiming to introduce legislation which specifies substances approved for use in food packaging materials, but has met fierce opposition from industry groups, who are concerned over potential supply chain communication issues and want to protect confidential business information. And China is currently reforming its food contact legal system from a net of 265 related safety standards into one uniform legislation. The new system has adopted the positive list approach and aims to cover the whole supply chain. How China will implement its ambitious new system will be interesting to follow; challenges related to enforcement, safety assessment methods, and a lack of guidance for industry are presenting significant hurdles.
Cracking down on BPA
Meanwhile, industry has had to keep an eye on substances it may no longer be able to use in food packaging. After pressure from NGOs regulators are pinning down on bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical used primarily in the production of plastics but also resins and - to a lesser extent - thermal papers of the kind used for till receipts. The chemical could soon be banned from coatings and varnishes used in food contact materials intended to be used by infants and babies. But regulatory action is unlikely to stop there. Members of the European Parliament have backed an environment committee report calling for a ban on BPA in all food contact materials, which was welcomed by consumer charities who are loudly calling for strict measures on the chemical.
As regulatory acceptance of BPA has waned, it is often being replaced by bisphenol S (BPS), an analogue that is structurally similar to BPA and can function in the same way in chemical products. But how long this substitution trend will last depends on ongoing scientific investigations into its toxicity profile. A 2017 review of scientific literature has found the substance to now be "ubiquitous in the environment and found worldwide", feeding concern over its potential effects on human health. Belgium, for instance, is conducting a substance evaluation of the BPS REACH registration dossier in response to evidence of endocrine disruption.
Why mineral oil hydrocarbons are gaining attention
Another group of substances attracting attention in the food packaging sector is mineral oil hydrocarbons (MOHs). According to the European Food Safety Authority (Efsa), MOHs are suspected of causing cancer and altering the human genome, with children being particularly susceptible. In early 2017 the European Commission called on member states to monitor their presence in food over the next two years. The outcome of this monitoring project could inform whether Brussels takes further action to limit the use of the chemicals in food contact materials.
For more articles like this visit the Chemical Watch food contact materials sector page