The European Commission (EC) has published a Recommendation on a coordinated control plan to determine the prevalence of certain substances migrating from food-contact materials (FCMs) into food. The Recommendation, (EU) 2019/794, was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on May 17, 2019.

The EC notes in Recital 3 to the Recommendation that information available from the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) indicates that the levels of certain substances migrating from FCMs into food are not always in compliance with the applicable legislation; yet, there is inadequate information to sufficiently determine the prevalence of these substances in food migrating from FCMs. Therefore, the Recommendation directs Member States (MSs) to implement the coordinated control plan to determine: 1) the migration of targeted substances from FCMs; 2) targeted substances in FCMs; and 3) overall migration from plastic FCMs. In particular, the types of substances that should be analyzed are:  

1. Primary aromatic amines (PAA)
2. Formaldehyde and Melamine
3. Phenol
4. Bisphenols including bisphenol A (BPA) and bisphenol S (BPS)
5. Phthalates and non-phthalate plasticisers
6. Fluorinated compounds (Recital 14 to the Recommendation explains that "Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of compounds that includes perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulphonate (PFOS).")
7. Metals

The Recommendation also specifies the types of FCMs and the minimum number of samples that should be tested by the MSs. The time frame for controls is from June 1 through December 31, 2019.  The results of the monitoring should be reported to the EC by the Member States by February 29, 2020.