Packaging Materials Task Force

Objectives

The task force aims to advance the science that supports the safety and quality of food packaging. It endeavours to identify issues of common interest to its members and to facilitate scientific debates. It closely collaborates with the European Commission (EC) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in order to ensure that the results contribute to improvements in risk assessment procedures on substances migrating from food contact materials and risk management concepts in the EC legislation applicable to such materials.

Another objective of the task force is to generate informative and comprehensive scientific documents that cover essential aspects of packaging materials. Therefore, the task force has launched a report series on packaging materials for a broad audience. These reports compile characteristics and the uses of the different packaging materials, their basic chemistry, safety and toxicology, regulations, and environmental fate. Reports already published address:

• Polyethylene terephthalate (PET),
• Polystyrene,
• Polypropylene
• Polyethylene,
• Polyvinyl chloride (PVC),
• Paper and board, and
• Metal packaging for foodstuffs.

The next two reports in this series will cover Printing food contact materials and Multilayer packagings.

Impacts

The report series on packaging materials is widely used in the academic sector for teaching students and in the industry sector as a valuable source of information providing a concise overview of the different packaging materials.

The guidelines on ‘Recycling of plastics for food contact use’ were directly incorporated in the French and Swiss legislation.

Safety of packaging in contact with food is a worldwide requirement. Therefore, the task force collaborates with the ILSI North America Project Committee on Food Packaging Safety, ILSI Southeast Asia in providing contributions to their work and conferences, ILSI China, an emerging market asking for strong support on food packaging issues.

The International Symposia on Food Packaging provide a unique platform to discuss the science of the safety and quality of food packaging with experts from government, academia and industry.

Activities

Footprints of Packaging Materials

While the technical performance, safety and suitability for food applications is well understood for packaging materials, it is increasingly important to understand the environmental impact of such materials, and their wider sustainability performance.

A new expert group will develop a transparent and scientifically valid framework for the packaging community to use as best practice when assessing sustainability. This framework will address how packaging materials (e.g. bio-based materials and conventional fossil-fuel-based materials) should be assessed in the light of claims of environmental benefits (e.g. biodegradability, renewability and net global warming potential).

The key issue being an agreement on the key scientific criteria important for the sustainability assessment of packaging materials, and a single transparent methodology whereby performance can be understood in an independent way from marketing claims.

Special attention will be paid to other already ongoing activities performed by other organisations to avoid potential overlap.

Reports on Printing Food Contact Materials and Multilayer Packaging

The task force chose “Printing food contact materials” as the eighth issue and “Multilayer packagings” as the ninth issue in the report series on packaging materials. A team of authors for both reports is currently being identified.

4th International Symposium on Food Packaging: Scientific Developments Supporting Safety and Quality

On 19-21 November 2008, the 4th International Symposium on Food Packaging took place in Prague (CZ). About 300 participants from all over the world reviewed and debated recent scientific advances in food packaging focussing on the safety and quality of food packaging. The symposium also provided a platform to disseminate results of ongoing research and to discuss their implications for the future. In addition, more than 100 posters were presented at the event.

The following sessions were held:

• Risk assessment – Exposure and toxicological developments;
• Sustainability and novel packaging;
• Analytical challenges;
• Emerging issues and their impact on risk assessment;
• Packaging quality assurance.

The presentations and posters are accessible here.

The proceedings of the symposium will be published in Food Additives and Contaminants.

Task Force Collaborators

Members - 2009