Article | REF: AG6505 V1

Regulations and practises regarding packaging - Legislation on packages intended to come in contact with food

Author: Sylvain MARTIN

Publication date: January 10, 2012

You do not have access to this resource.
Click here to request your free trial access!

Already subscribed? Log in!


Overview

Français

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.

Read this article from a comprehensive knowledge base, updated and supplemented with articles reviewed by scientific committees.

Read the article

AUTHOR

 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.

You do not have access to this resource.

Exclusive to subscribers. 97% yet to be discovered!

You do not have access to this resource.
Click here to request your free trial access!

Already subscribed? Log in!


The Ultimate Scientific and Technical Reference

A Comprehensive Knowledge Base, with over 1,200 authors and 100 scientific advisors
+ More than 10,000 articles and 1,000 how-to sheets, over 800 new or updated articles every year
From design to prototyping, right through to industrialization, the reference for securing the development of your industrial projects

This article is included in

Food industry

This offer includes:

Knowledge Base

Updated and enriched with articles validated by our scientific committees

Services

A set of exclusive tools to complement the resources

Practical Path

Operational and didactic, to guarantee the acquisition of transversal skills

Doc & Quiz

Interactive articles with quizzes, for constructive reading

Subscribe now!

Ongoing reading
Packaging law and practice
Outline