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ABSTRACT
The European regulation regarding food contact suitability has become more complex over the last few years. Significant legislation including texts, directives, orders and decrees is aimed at guaranteeing consumers’ safety. The fields of application, the conformity requirements as well as products traceability have been defined and the implementation of good practices has become obligatory in French companies. Whereas the role of packaging used to be passive, not only has it become active, with properties aimed at guaranteeing food products quality, but also intelligent as some packages have the ability to signal alterations in products. Furthermore, a significant amount of specific guidelines governs the usage of recycled plastics in the manufacture of packages intended to come in contact with food.
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Read the articleAUTHOR
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Sylvain MARTIN: Lawyer at the Paris Court of Appeal
INTRODUCTION
The suitability of packaging for food contact was already taken into account in France's first major law on fraud and the hygiene of foodstuffs (1 er August 1905). These regulations hardly changed until the 1960s.
In the 1970s, consumer associations' demand for safety led public authorities to introduce two main types of regulation:
for materials intended for contact with foodstuffs, required to be "inert";
for chemicals carefully classified according to their hazards and risks.
At the time, it didn't occur to anyone to mix the two sets of regulations:
suitability for food contact was ensured by examining a file to verify inertness according to methods defined by the authorities. The aim was to ensure that substances originating from packaging did not migrate into foodstuffs and end up in stomachs;
chemicals were classified as dangerous substances because of the serious risks involved, such as poisoning, burning or genetic mutation. The aim was to harmonize the legislation of the Member States so as to have a common nomenclature of hazardous chemicals and, consequently, to be able to take harmonized safety measures in the Member States.
The two sets of regulations converged over the decades, as research methods evolved and public expectations changed.
This convergence found its legal culmination in the European REACH regulation 1907/2006 of December 18, 2006, which requires manufacturers to have greater knowledge of the products they market, so that they can provide greater safety for users. This regulation primarily concerns hazardous substances, but also all substances in general, including constituents of packaging intended for contact with foodstuffs.
Nonetheless, consumer safety is guaranteed in a specific way by specific legislation governing food contact.
Here you'll find the main legal rules of a regulatory system that is far more complex today than it was in 1905. The aim is to help the reader to :
find their way through the modern legislative maze of European directives and regulations and French decrees and orders;
find out which texts have been repealed and which are the main ones applicable on December 30, 2011.
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Bibliography
Digital media
AFNOR CD on food contact http://www.decitre.fr
Websites
• European Union includes :
all European texts (directives and regulations) in the "Simple search" section;
official comments http://eur-lex.europa.eu
• Court of Justice of the European Union. All European case law
Directories
Laboratories – Design offices – Schools – Research centers (non-exhaustive list)
ANSES – Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l'alimentation, de l'environnement et du travail (French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety) http://www.anses.fr
LNE – Laboratoire national de métrologie et d'essais...
Declarations of conformity
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Declaration of conformity in accordance with directive 84/500 of October 15, 1984 on lead and cadmium migrating ceramics (article 2 bis and annex III transposed by the order of May 23, 2006).
At the various stages of marketing, up to and including sale to the final consumer, ceramic articles not yet in contact with foodstuffs are accompanied by a written declaration....
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