Regulatory requirements for food contact materials still high

International Fresenius Conference on 11 to 12 June 2012 discussed legislation and new approaches to risk assessment in Cologne (Germany)

Dortmund, Cologne (Germany), 14 June 2012

The migration from food contact materials is one of the largest sources of food contamination. Nevertheless, there are only a few specific regulations for migrating substances so far. The highly complex issue brings the authorities in a difficult position: both public safety and industry needs must be equally considered. There are many ideas how the handling of the issue could be further developed. Some of these were presented at the second International Fresenius Conference "Residues of Food Contact Materials in Food" 11 to 12 June 2012 in Cologne (Germany). In particular, the questions of who should control contact materials in the future and which methods for risk assessment are the most trend-setting were the focus of attention.

At the beginning of the conference Dietmar Österreicher (Austrian Federal Ministry of Health) pointed out that there are in principle two possible directions in which the legislation of food contact materials could evolve: On one hand a shift to self-control of the manufacturers - checked by the authorities - would be imaginable. On the other hand, more detailed regulations for single substances could be established, Österreicher mentioned. The approach of self-control alone would neither be easy to implement nor sufficiently transparent and thus no realistic alternative. However, clear, specific rules would provide guidance for both the industry and the authorities and would as well disburden the controlling bodies who would often feel the need to establish necessary rules by themselves, Österreicher explained. Beyond that, all parties had to increase their efforts significantly to increase the safety of consumers quickly and permanently. Both the European Commission, the Member States and the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) as well as research institutions and official monitoring bodies should get more involved in the development of new exposition models and risk assessment tools. Likewise, an improved cooperation of the manufacturers and better communication between them and the users (food industry) would be needed.

Risk assessment based on EU-wide data: the FACET project

More and more risk assessment projects focus on working with data from several EU countries. As one example, Laurenca Castle (British Food and Environment Research Agency – FERA) presented the FACET project to the conference which will be completed after a four-year project phase in August 2012. The EU-funded venture dealt with consumer exposure to additives, flavouring substances and food contact material-substances, Castle explained introductorily. A prohabilistic exposure model was used that took the nature of susbtances, used materials and specific foods as well as the amount of the migrating substances and the quantity of eaten food into account, Castle continued.The project would contain a comprehensive database of over 6.000 substances, information on the composition of single contact materials and models for exposure assessment and migration from multi-layer and multi-material food packaging. On top of that, the FACET-database was linked with the Directorate-General for Health and Consumers of the European Commission (DG-SANCO) and covered thus also EU-regulated substances. Data regarding the use of packaging materials from more than 20 EU countries had been used for the project, Castle explicated. To determine individual migration from packaging into foods, diffusion and partition coefficients had been identified, taking into account physical-chemical properties of the migrating substances as well as packaging features such as temperature differences. The FACET-team had been able to obtain detailed information on exposure through the project: In addition to information about single countries, age groups and gender, exposure could also be declared according to body weight and per person and day. A final report on the entire project would be available in autumn 2012, Castle closed.

The complete Fresenius conference documentation including scripts from all the presentations can be purchased at the Akademie Fresenius for 295,00 € (plus VAT) or here.

Contact details:

Die Akademie Fresenius GmbH
Monika Stratmann

Alter Hellweg 46
44369 Dortmund
Germany

Phone +49 231 75896-48
Fax +49 231 75896-53
E-Mail mstratmann@akademie-fresenius.de
Internet www.akademie-fresenius.com

Regulatory requirements for food contact materials still high

International Fresenius Conference on 11 to 12 June 2012 discussed legislation and new approaches to risk assessment in Cologne (Germany)

Contact details:

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