Exactly 6 years ago, on 20th May 2020 the European Commission acknowledged the need to revise the EU’s legislation on food contact materials (FCMs) as part of the Farm to Fork Strategy. But several years on, no legal proposal has been published, which means that harmful chemicals can continue to be used in FCMs, migrating from them into our foods, and landing on our plates!
Alongside many other organisations, CHEM Trust has been calling for a revision of the EU’s laws on chemicals in FCMs since July 2014. The EU Parliament has called for new legislation on FCM several times, and the Commission’s own public consultation revealed that many other stakeholders are also calling for changes.
The key concerns – FCM legislation is not protective enough
There are many problems with the current legislation on food contact materials that need to be addressed:
- The lack of effective measures to prevent the use of the most harmful chemicals, such as endocrine disrupting chemicals, in FCMs. This results in the EU population being exposed to these chemicals via migration from the materials into food.
- No EU harmonised rules exist for many of the most common FCMs, including paper, card, inks and glues. This not only causes differences in levels of protection across member states but also unnecessarily increases compliance burdens for companies and enforcement efforts of authorities.
- The risk assessment of harmful chemicals in FCM is inadequate due to missing data, missing requirements to generate it, and a lack of integration of the latest science into the methodology.
- Non-intentionally added substances (NIAS), which are impurities or reaction products produced during the FCM manufacturing process, are not sufficiently controlled by the existing rules. Similar to intentionally added substances, NIAS can migrate into food and significantly contribute to harmful exposures.
These problems are enhanced by a lack of clarity regarding responsibility for ensuring safety in the supply chain for FCM, as well as a lack of enforcement of the rules.
Current improvements add to a piecemeal approach
There have been some improvements regarding the safety of FCMs. For example, the ‘forever chemicals’, PFAS, were banned in food contact packaging under the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation. Bisphenol A and other hazardous bisphenols have been restricted in some food contact materials. While this is a great win for health protection, these laws add to the EU’s piecemeal approach of unsystematic and slow regulation that is passed only after damage is obvious, rather than preventing damage and solving the fundamental problems of the FCM legislation.
There are many additional harmful chemicals migrating into food, as documented in the FCCmigex database by the Food Packaging Forum. These threaten human health and require prompt and comprehensive action.
Only a revision of FCM legislation will help!
The revision of the EU’s main chemicals legislation, the REACH regulation, has been called off by the EU Commission. The envisaged changes to the regulation that CHEM Trust supported included:
- extending the simplified restriction procedure (REACH Art. 68.2) to endocrine disruptors and persistent chemicals;
- adapting information requirements to enable better identification of the most harmful substances, as well as considering mixture effects;
- and options to strengthen the enforcement of compliant registration dossiers.
These changes would have supported the safety of FCMs, either by providing better information on harmful chemicals or via quicker restrictions that also apply to food contact materials.
Given the shelving of the REACH revision, it is even more important to have strong, future-proof FCM legislation that ensures a high level of protection for people, alongside a clear, predictable, and fair environment for companies.
The EU Commission’s DG Sante has presented their “aspirations” for EU FCM rules, which look promising. In particular, we see our core principles for the future legislation (see the Five Key Principles below) reflected in these aspirations. These aspirations should be published as part of a legislative proposal as soon as possible.
Five Key Principles for future FCM legislation
In 2019, CHEM Trust collaborated with EU NGOs and civil society organisations to develop five key principles that should steer the choice of practical solutions and guide the development of the future legislation on FCMs. These principles still hold true today.
The new EU regulation of chemicals in food contact materials must ensure:
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- A high level of protection of human health
- Thorough assessment of chemicals in materials and final articles
- Effective enforcement
- A clean circular economy based on non-toxic material cycles
- Transparency and participation
Antonia Reihlen, CHEM Trust Chemicals Policy Expert said:
“CHEM Trust is deeply concerned about the lack of protection from harmful chemicals in food contact materials. Delaying the revision of FCM legislation means continuing to expose EU citizens to a myriad of harmful substances, cementing outdated and inadequate risk assessment and management procedures. It also fails to support progressive and innovative companies and ignores the multiple asks from stakeholder groups to take action.
DG Sante has presented good ideas for revised FCM legislation, it is high time we see them come to life!”
See our new timeline here, showing the slow pace of action on making our food contact materials safer.
