‘Made from food safe material’ not always enough

The principles set out in Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004 require that materials do not release their constituents into food at levels harmful to human health or change food composition, taste and odour in an unacceptable way.

All Paxton Materials Handling products, manufactured from non-coloured polyethylene meet these most stringent requirements and come with a Declaration of Compliance (DoC), supported by comprehensive migration testing.

Compliance can only be verified by migration testing. Simply stating ”made from food safe material” as many in the industry still do, is not enough. In the case of plastics, the monomer producer, the intermediate producer and the finished item producer are all responsible for producing DoCs supported by detailed test results showing that the material, intermediate or finished article meets Specific Migration Limits and Overall Migration Limits

The migration testing is carried out using various food simulants (typically, 10% ethanol for alcohols, 3% acetic acid for acidic food and olive oil for fatty foods). All the test results for Paxton Materials Handling Products fell comfortably below the limits stipulated in EU Regulation 10/2011.

The company says: “If you purchase plastic materials handling containers that are destined to come into contact with food it would be wise to request DoCs along with all your requirements. The consequences of non-compliance could be costly.”