Jeff Keithline and Hazel O’Keeffe Featured in Food Contact World Article on Plastic Food Contact Materials in Europe

Keller and Heckman Partners Jeff Keithline and Hazel O’Keeffe were featured in the Food Contact World article titled “EU suggests tough resin purity laws for plastics in food contact.” The article refers to Keller and Heckman’s March 21, 2024, webinar, Proposed Challenges and Threats to Plastic Food-Contact Materials in Europe, where Jeff and Hazel addressed the European Commission’s proposal for a further amendment to its rules on plastics in food contact.

Jeff stated during the webinar that if the 18th amendment proposal were to be enacted in its current form, the new Article 8 would be “very difficult to meet and likely would be commercially infeasible - as most material producers do not identify all impurities down to 0.1ppm (or potentially even lower as may be required for some starting substances based on the structure of the requirements of the new amendment). The extra work is not proportional to the risk. Especially as no such similar requirements are being set for non-plastic food contact materials.”

Hazel also explained that the amendment will remove the reference to the Provisional List of Additives in Article 7 of Regulation 10/2011. The amendment will make surface biocides only subject to the EU’s Biocidal Products Regulation 528/2012 (i.e., they will not be required to be listed on the Plastics Regulation and the Provisional List will be removed).

To read the full article, please click here.