Commercial Information Circulars

24-hour hotline : 23 922 922

e-mail address : enquiry@tid.gov.hk

Ref : EIC 230/2/12

12 March 2008

Dear Sirs,

Commercial Information Circular No. 166/2008

European Union (EU)* : Amendments to the Directive on Plastic Materials and Articles Intended to Come Into Contact with Foodstuffs

Further to Commercial Information Circular No. 194/2007 of 3 May 2007, the European Commission (the Commission) has adopted a Directive to amend the Directive 2002/72/EC relating to plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with food. Details are set out in Commission Directive 2008/39/EC (the Directive). The Directive can be accessed through the following link :
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2008:063:0006:0013:EN:PDF

DETAILS

2. Major provisions of the Directive include:

   1. Additives which are not included in the Community list of additives (Annex III of Directive 2002/72/EC) may continue to be used subject to national law until 31 December 2009;

   2. The Community list of additives (Annex III of Directive 2002/72/EC) shall become a positive list starting from 1 January 2010. Only additives included in the list may be used for the manufacture of plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with foodstuffs;

   3. A provisional list of additives that are under evaluation by the European Food Safety Authority (the Authority) shall be made public by the Commission by 11 April 2008 at the latest. Additives on the provisional list may continue to be used subject to national law after 1 January 2010. The list shall be kept updated. An additive shall be removed from the provisional list:

      1. when it is included in the Community list of additives; or

      2. when a decision is taken by the Commission not to include it in the Community list of additives; or

      3. if during the examination of the data, the Authority calls for supplementary information and that information is not submitted within the time limits specified by the Authority;

   4. The list of monomers and other starting substances which may be used in the manufacture of plastic materials and articles is updated; and

   5. The list of additives which may be used is also updated.

3. Member States shall prohibit the manufacture and importation into the Community of plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with food and which do not comply with the amendments introduced by this Directive starting from 7 March 2010.

ENQUIRIES

4. For enquiries concerning the contents of this circular, please contact the undersigned at telephone number 2398 5684.

Yours faithfully,

 

(Cyrus NG)
for Director-General of Trade and Industry

* The EU includes Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.