2021/0836/NL
EC/EFTA
NL Niederlande
  • C50A - Lebensmittel
2022-03-07
2021-12-15

Packaging and consumer articles in contact with foodstuffs.

Amendment of the regulation on packaging and consumer articles (Commodities Act) in connection with the removal and addition of substances to Part A of the Annex as well as some technical amendments

This regulation partly aims to add new substances to Part A of the Annex to the regulation on packaging and consumer articles (Commodities Act), in which substances are included which may be used during the manufacturing of materials and articles for food contact. The new substances concerned have been requested by the industry in the last three years and assessed by the Dutch Food Contact Material Safety Assessment Committee (NCbvv). The NCbvv at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment carries out risk assessments for national authorisations under the Packaging and Consumables Commodities Act Decree. On the basis of the carried out risk assessments, the NCbvv considered that certain substances could be

authorised.
In addition, part A of the Annex amends the provisions on the authorised migration (release) of lead. The Specific Migration Limit (SML) has been aligned with the Council of Europe Specific Release Limit of 0.01 mg/kg. In addition, this SML does not apply to foods for which a Maximum Limit (ML) has been established based on the European Contaminants Regulation (Commission Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006 of 19 December 2006 setting maximum levels for certain contaminants in foodstuffs). In this way, the European legislation on lead in food products and the Dutch legislation on the delivery of lead by metal packaging are better aligned one with another. This amendment also includes the withdrawal of the authorisation in paper, paperboard and
coatings of four substances belonging to the group of perfluoralky compounds (PFAS). In its opinion of 17 September 2020, EFSA derived a new safety threshold for four PFAS. Subsequently, the National Institute for Public Health and Environmental Hygiene (RIVM) studied the PFAS authorised in the Netherlands for food contact materials. It was found that four PFAS authorised in the Netherlands could contain traces (as starting substance, pollution or reaction product) of the PFAS for which EFSA derived much stricter limit values. It is therefore uncertain whether the authorised substances would still be safe and if it could possible be decided to withdraw their authorisation.
In addition, several technical amendments have been made.
For the sake of completeness, it is noted that Article 13d of the Commodities Act contains a mutual recognition clause. The mutual recognition principle entails that an EU Member State shall not ban in its own territory the sale of goods that have been legally brought onto the market in another EU Member State on the grounds that the goods do not meet its own national regulations. It is critical here that goods from another EU Member State offer at least an equivalent level of protection. The marketing of goods with an equivalent level of protection originating from other EU Member States falling within the scope of this regulation is therefore not prohibited on the basis of requirements laid down in this regulation.