Food contact certification

Dear All,

May I request a little help / clarification on the under mentioned.

We are shortly having our BRC inspection and have obtained a new supplier of board from Germany. I requested a Certificate of Conformity and also a food grade statement and have recieved the following:

"We are pleased to confirm that the board supplied buy us is manufactured accoring to the latest technical developments and in compliance with the recommendation XXXVI of the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) i.e we only use raw and auxiliiary materials meeting the requirements of the recommendation XXXVI of the BfR.

We further confirm that our board used as packaging materials for pre-packed goods, that means separation from foodstuff by a functional barrier, meets the regulations of tthe Food and feed law book (LFBG from 01.09.2005, particularly ss30 section 1-3 and 31 section 1)."

I have done a little reading up on the BfR and it seems to me that it mainly relates to chemical composition (control law) of various articles in Germany and in itself is not a suitable "food grade" contact statement as in complying with EU reg 2002/72/EC and its amendments.

I would value and help and advice from Safepackers

Kind regards,

Steve

Dear All,

May I request a little help / clarification on the under mentioned.

We are shortly having our BRC inspection and have obtained a new supplier of board from Germany. I requested a Certificate of Conformity and also a food grade statement and have recieved the following:

"We are pleased to confirm that the board supplied buy us is manufactured accoring to the latest technical developments and in compliance with the recommendation XXXVI of the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) i.e we only use raw and auxiliiary materials meeting the requirements of the recommendation XXXVI of the BfR.

We further confirm that our board used as packaging materials for pre-packed goods, that means separation from foodstuff by a functional barrier, meets the regulations of tthe Food and feed law book (LFBG from 01.09.2005, particularly ss30 section 1-3 and 31 section 1)."

I have done a little reading up on the BfR and it seems to me that it mainly relates to chemical composition (control law) of various articles in Germany and in itself is not a suitable "food grade" contact statement as in complying with EU reg 2002/72/EC and its amendments.

I would value and help and advice from Safepackers

Kind regards,

Steve

Steve.

A couple of Questions that may help us home in on the best way to proceed..

1.What is the composition of the board, (is it recycled paperboard ?)
2. What type of package is this board , used in ?
3. Is it a direct food contact material ?

The reason I ask is the fact you apparently need a board to conform to the EU regulation on plastics in contact with food.

I know that at our plant we have to place very careful distinction between food grade and food contact approved. Food Grade is a delightfully vague statement of no real meaning that is used on everything from wipes to machine oil

Steve.

A couple of Questions that may help us home in on the best way to proceed..

1.What is the composition of the board, (is it recycled paperboard ?)
2. What type of package is this board , used in ?
3. Is it a direct food contact material ?

The reason I ask is the fact you apparently need a board to conform to the EU regulation on plastics in contact with food.

I know that at our plant we have to place very careful distinction between food grade and food contact approved. Food Grade is a delightfully vague statement of no real meaning that is used on everything from wipes to machine oil

Dear Mart,

Thanks for your reply, The board is comprised of recycled paper for inner and virgin paper for outer liners. It is used for direct food contact (Pizza bases) and has a protective barrier of PE (poly ethelene) on the side that comes into contact with the food.

Kind regards,

Steve

The board is comprised of recycled paper for inner and virgin paper for outer liners. It is used for direct food contact (Pizza bases) and has a protective barrier of PE (poly ethelene) on the side that comes into contact with the food.

Steve.
Does the board come to you with the PE coating applied or is that applied as part of your process ? If the board comes in ready coated then the following part of your suppliers response bothers me a bit ..

We further confirm that our board used as packaging materials for pre-packed goods, that means separation from foodstuff by a functional barrier, meets the regulations of tthe Food and feed law book (LFBG from 01.09.2005, particularly ss30 section 1-3 and 31 section 1)."

This does not say that the board is suitable for direct food contact but rather as a seccondary packaging. I would inform your supplier that you require certification that the PE element of the board conforms to EU 2002/72 but from what they have already said it appears that it may not which may be interesting if your purchasing people have ordered tons of the stuff

Steve.
Does the board come to you with the PE coating applied or is that applied as part of your process ? If the board comes in ready coated then the following part of your suppliers response bothers me a bit ..
This does not say that the board is suitable for direct food contact but rather as a seccondary packaging. I would inform your supplier that you require certification that the PE element of the board conforms to EU 2002/72 but from what they have already said it appears that it may not which may be interesting if your purchasing people have ordered tons of the stuff

Dear Mart,

The PE is already applied, and I was thinking along the same lines as your good self, I have e-mailed the BfR in Berlin requesting clarification, however I am not holding my breath.

Thanks for your time mate, i will let you know the outcome.

Kind regards,

Steve

Steve.
Does the board come to you with the PE coating applied or is that applied as part of your process ? If the board comes in ready coated then the following part of your suppliers response bothers me a bit ..
This does not say that the board is suitable for direct food contact but rather as a seccondary packaging. I would inform your supplier that you require certification that the PE element of the board conforms to EU 2002/72 but from what they have already said it appears that it may not which may be interesting if your purchasing people have ordered tons of the stuff

Dear Mart,

The PE is already applied, and I was thinking along the same lines as your good self, I have e-mailed the BfR in Berlin requesting clarification, however I am not holding my breath.

It seems to me that the above mentioned statement is saying that the protective functional barrier ensures that the migration of the authorised substances does not exceed the permitted limit applicable to whatever and that the migration of the "whatever substance" is below a concentration that could endager human health.

Thanks for your time mate, i will let you know the outcome.

Kind regards,

Steve

Gaskit,

did you find out what the RfB is for? They are focused on giving recomendations from a scientific point of view to consumers and producing companies.

In your case I'm not sure, if the answer you got from the German company is really, what you were looking for...

About the LFGB: this is the german transition of EU VO 178/2002, 852/2004 and others.

Gaskit,

did you find out what the RfB is for? They are focused on giving recomendations from a scientific point of view to consumers and producing companies.

In your case I'm not sure, if the answer you got from the German company is really, what you were looking for...

About the LFGB: this is the german transition of EU VO 178/2002, 852/2004 and others.

Dear Peter,

Thanks for your replly, I have not yet rec'd any clarification from BfR but will chase again and let all know the outcome.

Kind regards,

Steve

Hi, does anyone have an example of "food contact compliance" statement? We are a food ingredient company and a distributor asked for it. Thanks!

The EU legislation that you state for the plastic part (2002/72/EC) is out of date and the one you should get from your supplier is EU10/2011 and its many , many amendments.

 

If your market includes the EU, the statement should reference also the framework food contact legislation EU1935/2004.