Recycling Processes for Food Packaging

Pira International performs studies to evaluate the effectiveness of recycling processes for both plastics and paper in the re-use of post consumer waste for food packaging. These projects are carried out according to EU or FDA protocols and normally involve dosing virgin material with chemical surrogates and collecting the treated material at various points in the cleaning process. Quantitative trace analysis of the surrogates in the cleaned material is then conducted and, if necessary, migration tests performed to establish the effectiveness of the process.

In the EU recycling of plastics for food contact applications is covered by Regulation (EC) No 282/2008. Part of compliance with this involves only using approved recycling processes. To approve a process it is necessary to submit a technical dossier to EFSA. Part of this dossier involves determination of the decontamination efficiency of the recycling process, often referred to as challenge testing since it involves "challenging" the process with a plastic deliberately contaminated with surrogate contaminants. Pira can help you with this by preparing your contaminated feedstock, analysing it and then analysing the output from your process to determine the decontamination efficiency. We can also help you by writing this part of the dossier for you and providing advice on what you should include in the quality assurance system necessary to support future process users.

In the USA recycled materials are not covered by specific FDA Regulations, but need to comply with the relevant requirements of Chapter 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations. To show that a recycling process is safe a challenge test is used in a similar fashion to that for the EU, but differing in the detail.

Contacts:

Ian Cooper
email: ian.cooper@pira-international.com
Tel: +44 1372 80 2182