EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation: Impact on American Companies

The PPWR is a very extensive piece of legislation, and even American processors and brand owners need to be aware of its requirements, which start Aug. 12.

The final countdown to the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (EU 2025/40 PPWR) is on, as its requirements will apply on a phased basis starting this Aug. 12.

Although the European Commission published a guidance document [1] on June 10 and a Frequently Asked Questions document on March 30, many questions remain. In this article, we examine how food brand owners are impacted by the PPWR and look more closely at some of the most imminent requirements.

When determining what obligations apply under the PPWR, it is critical for business operators to understand their role in the supply chain. It also should be kept in mind that the PPWR applies, in principle, to all packaging (including bulk food packaging at the B2B stage, for instance), but that the requirements may vary depending on the type of packaging (e.g., sales packaging that is intended to be in direct contact with the packaged product vs. transport packaging) and the end use application (e.g., packaging for food or medicinal products or dangerous goods).

Also, the PPWR is a framework regulation and the details needed to comply with certain provisions will be set forth in implementing and delegated acts that have yet to be drawn up.

Who’s the 'manufacturer'?

The guidance makes it clear that there is only one manufacturer in the supply chain and it is the manufacturer that it is responsible for many fundamental requirements of the PPWR, including substances of concern in packaging, recyclability and recycled content requirements, packaging minimization, requirements for compostable packaging and labeling.

The guidance emphasizes that if packaging or a packaged product carries a certain name or trademark, it can be assumed that the owner of that name or trademark is the manufacturer for the purposes of the PPWR (rather than the business operator that physically produces the packaging).

By contrast, in the case of unmarked packaging, the manufacturer could be either the packaging supplier or the person who places packaged products on the EU market. Per the Guidance, “[t]he decisive criterion is who places the order and decides on the design specifications for that packaging.”

Substances of Concern/PFAS

The PPWR requires that, as from Aug. 12, all packaging placed on the EU market shall be manufactured so that the presence and concentration of substances of concern (SoCs) as constituents of the packaging material or of any of the packaging components is minimized.

There is no list of SoCs in the PPWR, although the commission and the European Chemicals Agency are currently conducting a study on SoCs in packaging and packaging components. Their report is to be published by Dec. 31, and it may list SoCs [2].

While there are also no general concentration thresholds for SoCs in the PPWR (apart from certain heavy metals and, as discussed below, per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances), manufacturers must be able to objectively demonstrate that the presence of SoCs has been minimized. However, there is currently no guidance on how to ensure this.

The FAQ indicates that existing European harmonized standard EN 13428: 2004, related to the minimization of dangerous substances and preparations and ensuring conformity [3], does not lead to a presumption of conformity with the minimization of SoCs requirement the PPWR. Hence, this creates some legal uncertainty for manufacturers.

The PPWR sets maximum concentration limits for per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in food packaging only. The applicable thresholds are:

• ≤ 25 ppb for any individual PFAS measured with targeted PFAS analysis
• ≤ 250 ppb for the sum of PFAS measured as the sum of targeted PFAS analysis
• ≤ 50 ppm for all PFAS (including polymeric PFAS)

The limits apply to all PFAS, whether intentionally added or unintentionally present, and apply to the packaging unit as a whole (including inks, coatings, adhesives, and other associated materials). There is no exemption for packaging containing recycled materials.

The guidance details a stepwise approach for enforcement of the PFAS restrictions.

Step 1 involves testing the packaging for total fluorine (TF) to determine whether the total is below the 50ppm threshold. If this TF limit is not exceeded, the sample "could" be considered compliant.

If total fluorine is above 50ppm, as step 2, methods such as pyrolysis-GC/MS are recommended to confirm whether the fluorine is organic or inorganic. If organic fluorine is below 50ppm, the sample "could" be considered to be compliant.

The guidance includes a recommended step 3, which is a direct total oxidizable precursors (TOP) analysis to check compliance with the 25ppb and 250ppb PFAS concentration limits. The commission adds that, on the basis of the evidence currently available, all samples compliant with the total fluorine content test are also compliant with steps 2 and 3.

While this language was finalized when the guidance was still in draft form on March 30, we note that a more recent publication by the PFAS Task Force [4] sets forth a slightly different tiered approach which suggests that if the total fluorine content is less than 10ppm (mg F/kg), testing for individual PFAS is not needed [5].

Although the PFAS limits also apply from Aug. 12, the commission notes in the FAQ that “the commission is striving to ensure a harmonized approach of the national market surveillance authorities for the enforcement of the PFAS limits,” and plenty of laboratories offer total fluorine and total organic fluorine analyses.

Manufacturers need to draw up the Declaration of Conformity (in addition to supporting technical documentation) and conduct the conformity assessment procedure by Aug. 12 for the packaging or packaged products being placed on the EU market. This can be particularly challenging for food brand owners given that they may not manufacture the packaging -- yet, as manufacturers for purposes of the PPWR, they must take legal responsibility for compliance with many aspects of the PPWR.

However, per the PPWR, suppliers "shall provide the manufacturer with all the information and documentation necessary for the manufacturer to demonstrate the conformity of the packaging and the packaging materials with this Regulation" [6].

Other Considerations

While we focus above on some imminent requirements applicable to food brand owners placing packaging or packaged products on the EU market, other operators in the supply chain also have responsibilities.

In the case of extended producer responsibility (EPR) requirements, it is the producer (who could be either the manufacturer, the importer or the distributor) that is responsible (and manufacturers outside the EU can be responsible for EPR in certain circumstances). Other requirements such as bans on certain single-use packaging, obligations related to excessive packaging, re-use and re-fill targets apply more generally to economic operators rather than to a specific party in the supply chain.

In the case of re-use targets for transport packaging, according to the guidance, even packaging that is used to package products imported into the EU could be subject to the re-use targets as these apply from the moment the packaged products are in free circulation in the EU (typically when the packaged products leave the warehouse) for delivery to the EU customer.

The PPWR is a very extensive piece of legislation and, as already noted, many of the details needed for compliance are to be set forth in implementing and delegated acts.

Ultimately, it is clear that the regulatory regime applicable to packaging and packaging waste in the EU is being significantly overhauled and that food brand owners and other operators in the supply chain need to be proactive to comply with the substantive upcoming requirements in time.

This is particularly challenging as, despite the guidance and the FAQs, many questions remain while a harmonized method for measuring PFAS has not yet been published.

This article is reprinted with the permission of Food Processing Magazine. It was first published by Food Processing on June 29, 2026.

[1] See Guidance document on Regulation (EU) 2025/40 on packaging and packaging waste that was published in the Official Journal in the European Union on June 10, 2026. It is available at the following link: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/C/2026/3084/oj/eng. A draft version of this document with almost identical wording was also published on March 30, 2026. 

[2] The PPWR cross-references the definition of SoC in Article 2, point 27 of the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (EU) 2024/1781. According to this definition, SoCs include, for instance, substances classified as (category 1 or 2) carcinogens, germ cell mutagens or reproductive toxins in Part 3 of Annex VI of Regulation (EC) No. 1272/2008 on classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures, as amended (CLP Regulation). It also includes substances that negatively affect the reuse and recycling of materials in the product in which they are present.

[3] This standard led to a presumption of conformity regarding the aspects it covered under the Packaging and Packaging Directive 94/62/EC, which applies until its provisions are repealed and replaced by the PPWR.

[4] This Task Force with representatives from EU Member States (France, Sweden), DG ENVI, DG SANTE, Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) was created with the aim of developing a harmonised approach for testing compliance with the PFAS thresholds in the PPWR. This harmonized approach is supposed to be published in June 2026.

[5] For further information see notably slide 13 of 15 of presentation entitled “Implementation of Article 5 on the PFAS restrictions in food contact packaging,” dated May 20, 2026 available HERE

[6] See Article 16.1 of the PPWR