The European Commission (EC) has published a roadmap to assess the existing approach in the European Union (EU) to regulating food-contact materials (FCMs). The Framework Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004 provides that FCMs shall not transfer their components into food in quantities that could endanger human health or change the composition, or organoleptic properties of the food. The EC points out in the roadmap, titled, Evaluation of Food Contact Materials , that the Framework Regulation “has never been systematically assessed since the inception of its basic provisions set out in 1976” and that “there are issues concerning the disparity between detailed harmonized EU rules on plastic FCMs and the absence of EU rules for many other materials…”

The roadmap includes an annex summarizing FCMs related basic problems, drives (why problems exist), policy objectives, tools, and anticipated results. One of the basic problems listed in the annex is lack of efficient Member States enforcement at the technical level. An anticipated result is for Member States to carry out official controls on FCMs and enforce the rules.

Comments on the roadmap may be provided by any interested party from 28 November 2017 to 26 December 2017.While the roadmap is initially subject to a 4-week public consultation, the EC proposed a 12-week internet based public consultation on the evaluation of the Framework Regulation in the roadmap. In addition, the EC will commission a study on the evaluation of the Framework Regulation and, during the evaluation, will organize a stakeholder event to complement the evaluation process. 

The EC estimates that the evaluation of the Framework Regulation will be finalized in the second quarter of 2019.