EU Commission, Industry Start Talks on Food Contact Inks 'Measure'

The European Commission has started consulting with members of the food packaging industry on an EU measure on printed food contact materials (FCMs).

Ink industry players will be able to give input on the new law via a joint taskforce and several industry cross-sector groups, the European Printing Inks Association (EuPIA) said at the Smithers Pira Global Food Contact conference in Rome last month.

The Commission announced last year it would work on a harmonised law on printed FCMs. The health directorate (DG Sante) suggested this could be in place as early as mid-2018.

For now, however, industry still does not know what the measure will look like, EuPIA representative Sebastian Gierisch said in Rome. The Commission has started asking stakeholders questions and is "trying to find out what is reasonable", he added.

From the association's point of view the new law should incorporate international risk assessment standards and be "efficient, effective, enforceable, workable and pragmatic," Dr Gierisch said.

EuPIA wants the measure to cover printed non-food contact surfaces only. Direct contact between the print layer and food should be regulated separately, and at a later stage, Dr Gierisch told the conference.

EuPIA will encourage the Commission to incorporate elements from its own printing inks good manufacturing practice (GMP) into the European measure. This advocates a rigorous process of selecting raw materials, and designing formulations, to minimise the risk of non-intentionally added substances (Nias) migrating from ink.

Every substance with a potential to migrate must be risk assessed, according to the GMP. And ink manufacturers should prepare a statement of composition for each product. This should contain a table of potential migrants, including Nias "where reasonable".

Positive lists

EuPIA is against a positive list of substances allowed in printing inks. Substances included on such lists can be freely used.

It flagged the use of a positive list as a major issue with Germany's national ordinance on printing inks because the list was "incomplete" and the procedure for adding substances to it is "not transparent and [too] slow", Dr Gierisch said.

Although Germany notified a final draft of its ordinance to the Commission in July 2016, its adoption was suspended when Brussels announced that it would legislate printed FCMs across the EU.

Trade bodies have repeatedly voiced concerns over member states implementing national regulations. In Rome, Dr Gierisch said this would be a barrier to trade, as it initiates a "patchwork of varying laws".

Meanwhile, an update to Switzerland's national law on foodstuffs and FCMs entered into force on 1 May. It included updates to its own positive list of compounds that are allowed in printing inks.