If It Touches Food, It Is Regulated as a Material

What Counts as Food Contact

A food contact material is anything intended to come into contact with food: the bowl, the lid, the spoon, the cling film, the coffee capsule, the inner coating of a can, the ink on the wrapper where it faces the food, the conveyor belt in a bakery.

The category is wider than kitchenware. It includes packaging, processing equipment, storage containers, tableware, cutlery and the adhesives that hold them together. A product sold as a kitchen accessory is in scope even when it is not marketed as food contact, if a reasonable buyer would put food in it.

That last point is where first orders run into trouble. A storage jar sold as a decorative container, a silicone mat sold as a craft mat, a wooden board sold as a serving platter. Each is a food contact article in practice, and each will be assessed as one if a market surveillance authority looks at it.

The EU Framework and What It Demands

The EU framework regulation sets three principles: materials must not endanger health, must not bring about an unacceptable change in the composition of the food, and must not deteriorate its organoleptic properties. It applies to all food contact materials, including those without a specific measure.

Two obligations follow. Materials must be manufactured under good manufacturing practice, which for food contact is set out in its own regulation and covers traceability and quality control rather than hygiene alone. And materials must be accompanied by a declaration of compliance at the marketing stages other than retail.

The declaration is the document buyers most often do not have. It states that the material complies with the framework and any specific measure, identifies the substances with restrictions, gives the conditions of use and the supporting test data, and is signed by the supplier. For a plastics article it is a defined, detailed document, not a sentence on a letterhead.

Traceability is the other half. The regulation requires that materials can be traced one step back and one step forward. A supplier who cannot identify the resin batch behind a shipment cannot meet that, and the buyer inherits the gap.

Plastics, Migration and the Declaration

Plastics have the most detailed rules, because they have the most chemistry. The plastics regulation lists authorised monomers and additives, sets restrictions per substance, and establishes two kinds of limit.

Overall migration limit: the total mass of all substances that may transfer to food, capped at 60 milligrams per kilogram of food. Specific migration limit: a cap for an individual substance, where the toxicology requires one. Both are measured under defined test conditions chosen by the food type and the temperature and duration of contact.

Those conditions are where a supplier's test report can mislead. A report for contact at room temperature for less than two hours does not cover a product intended for hot soup or oven use. The report is genuine and irrelevant at the same time. Check the condition of use on the report against the way the product will actually be used.

Recycled plastics add a further step. Material recycled behind a functional barrier or from a closed loop requires an authorisation of the recycling process, rather than only a declaration for the finished article.

Hot fill and reheating are the two conditions suppliers test for least often, because the cheapest report is the room temperature one. A product intended for microwave use needs a test at the temperature and duration the standard specifies for that use, on the food simulant that represents the food type. A flask, a lunch box and a baking mould are three different test programmes, and one report rarely covers all three.

Fatty foods are the other variable. Migration into oil or fatty food is measured with a different simulant and often produces a higher result than the same material tested against an aqueous food. A supplier who tested with water and reports a pass has tested an easier case than the one your customers will create.

Ceramics, Glass, Metal and Bamboo

Different materials, different failure modes, and none of them exempt from the framework.

Typical concerns by material. Which limits apply, and at what level, depends on the specific measure and the food type.

Bamboo and plant fibre deserve a warning. Products described as bamboo tableware are frequently a melamine-formaldehyde plastic with bamboo powder added. The EU has treated these as non-compliant plastics rather than as natural materials, and enforcement against them has been sustained. A supplier offering bamboo dinnerware at a plastic price is usually selling the plastic version.

The US Route

The United States regulates food contact substances through the Food and Drug Administration, under a framework of food additive rules and premarket notifications. Materials that are generally recognised as safe, or that fall within an existing regulation, can be used without a notification. New substances generally cannot.

In practice, a US buyer needs the supplier to identify the food contact substance and cite the regulation or notification that covers its use. A letter saying FDA approved is not evidence, because the FDA does not approve materials in that sense.

State rules add a layer. California's Proposition 65 warnings and, for cookware, specific reporting requirements on listed chemicals are worth checking for anything sold into that market.

Buying in China: The Standards Behind the Product

Chinese food contact rules have their own national standards, covering general safety, plastics, ceramics, metal, coatings and adhesives. A Chinese manufacturer that sells domestically will usually hold test reports against those standards.

Those reports are useful evidence about the product and they are not a substitute for the destination's requirements. A GB test does not demonstrate compliance with the EU plastics regulation or with an FDA regulation, because the limits and the test conditions differ. The common mistake is to accept a domestic report as if it were a destination report.

The useful question at a booth is narrower: which laboratory tested this, against which standard, for which condition of use, and can I see the report rather than a summary. Suppliers who have exported to Europe or North America will have those documents. Suppliers who have not will offer a certificate of analysis, which is a different thing entirely.

Documents to Request

Ask for four documents and one statement, and check that they describe the same product.

• Declaration of compliance, signed, naming the regulation and the conditions of use.
• Migration test report from an accredited laboratory, with the test conditions and the food simulant stated.
• Material composition, including coatings, inks and adhesives on the food contact side.
• Traceability statement: who supplied the raw material, and what batch records exist.
• A written statement that the production version matches the tested version, and what changes would trigger retesting.

Then read the model number. A declaration for a 500 ml flask does not cover the 750 ml version if the liner or the closure differs. Buyers who check the paperwork and not the model number are the buyers who discover the gap at the port.

Retail packaging adds a step that buyers forget. Where the product is sold in a printed carton, the ink and the coating on that carton are themselves materials in contact with food if the food is packed inside it, and they fall inside the same framework. A food contact declaration that covers the container and not the printed lid is an incomplete declaration.

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