Global Food Contact Materials Regulations

The third module will look at Switzerland and its law the Swiss Ordinance on Food and Commodities that affects FCMs and articles. Before taking a deep dive into the regulation, we will consider how it defines FCMs. 

This will be followed by the key regulatory requirements affecting them. Among the topics for discussion will be the most recent amendment to the Swiss Ordinance on Materials and Articles intended to come in contact with food (SR 817.023.21) – Annex 10 for printing inks used in food contact applications, 1 December 2019. Additionally, the process of updating Part B of Annex 10 will be discussed. 

By attending this module, you will learn: 

• which regulatory requirements apply in Switzerland to the FCMs you are interested in, including plastics (Annex 2), printing inks (Annex 10), silicone articles (Annex 9); 
• which substances have already been approved in the current Swiss Ordinance on FCMs; 
• which are the steps for a new FCM substance petition under SR 817.023.21, at the Swiss Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO); 
• which migration testing conditions are to be applied, with case studies; 
• how to carry out a worst-case calculation (WCC) in cases of missing experimental or theoretical (modelling) migration data; 
• what the specifications are for certain key-listed FCM substances with respect to their specific migration limit (SML), as well as the overall migration limit (OML); 
• what the key steps are when considering the risk assessment of FCM substances migrating into food from an FCM or food contact article; and 
• how to demonstrate compliance with food contact applications. 

Ioan Paraschiv, PhD

Group Leader, Global Food & Food Contact Materials (FFCM) Division, Knoell, Netherlands