Commercial Information Circulars

24-hour hotline : 23 922 922

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

Ref : EIC 230/2/12

17 March 2014

Dear Sirs,

Commercial Information Circular No. 246/2014

European Union (EU)* : Regulations on Plastic Materials and Articles Intended to Come into Contact with Foodstuffs

Further to our Commercial Information Circular No. 1065/2012 of 14 December 2012, the European Commission (the Commission) has adopted a Regulation to amend Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 concerning plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with food. Details are set out in the Commission Regulation (EU) No. 202/2014, which can be accessed through the following link:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2014:062:0013:0015:EN:PDF

DETAILS

2.Annex I of Commission Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 establishes a Union list of substances which may be used in the manufacture of plastic materials and articles. Recently the European Food Safety Authority issued favourable scientific evaluations for two additional substances, namely 2-phenyl-3,3-bis (4-hydroxyphenyl) phthalimidine and 1,3-bis (isocyanatomethyl) benzene, which should be added to the Union list. Therefore, Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 is amended in accordance with the Annex of this Regulation.

3.In order to limit the administrative burden to business operators, plastic materials and articles which do not comply with this Regulation but have been lawfully placed on the market before 24 March 2014 may continue to be placed on the market until 24 March 2015. Those plastic materials and articles may remain on the market until the exhaustion of stocks.

ENQUIRIES

4.For enquiries concerning the content of this circular, please contact the undersigned at telephone number 2398 5556.

Yours faithfully,

(Miss Anita WONG)
for Director-General of Trade and Industry

* The EU includes Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, 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.