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On May 29, 2019, China’s National Health Commission (NHC) published information on the approval of a new food-contact additive, six new resins, and the expanded use of eight food-related products.

The new food-contact additive is Octadecanamide, N,N'-1,2-ethanediylbis-, reaction products with azacyclotridecan-2-one homopolymer and 1-isocyanatooctadecane (CAS: 338462-62-7), which can be used in coatings at a maximum level of 2%.

The newly approved resins are:

The European Council adopted the Single-Use Plastics Directive on May 21, 2019. The Directive will impact plastic food-contact articles through several initiatives, including bans on certain single-use plastics, increased collection goals, measures to reduce the consumption of plastic food containers, and extended producer responsibility requirements. (For background information, see the PackagingLaw.com article, EU Publishes Updated Draft of Single-Use Plastics Directive.)

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The Council of the European Union published on January 18, 2019, an amended version of the draft Directive on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment (also referred to as the “Single-Use Plastics Directive”). The amended draft directive makes significant changes to the European Commission’s (EC’s) original proposed draft of May 28, 2018.

The European Commission published the 12th amendment to the Plastics Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 on January 11, 2019, in the Official Journal of the European Union.  This amendment, Commission Regulation (EU) 2019/37, adds new substances to the list of substances that may be used in food contact materials (also referred to as the positive list or the Union list), makes corrections to pre-existing substances on the positive list, and clarifies what food si

Both the amount, by weight, of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles available for recycling and the amount of PET bottles recycled declined in 2017. However, since fewer PET bottles were available for recycling overall, the recycling rate actually increased between 2016 and 2017. These are among the finding in a report issued by the National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR) and the Association of Plastic Recyclers (ARP).

Treasury Chancellor Philip Hammond announced that the United Kingdom will introduce a new tax on the manufacture and import of plastic packaging that contains less than 30% recycled plastic during his recent Autumn Budget speech.

MERCOSUR’s final draft of the revised GMC Resolution No. 32/07 permitting additives that may be used in the manufacture of plastic food-contact materials is undergoing a public national and international consultation prior to publication. The resolution includes specific migration limits and usage restrictions for an updated list of permitted additives, in addition to defining calculation methods for assessing compliance with SMLs.

The European Commission published the 11th Amendment to the Plastics Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 (Commission Regulation (EU) 2018/831) in the Official Journal of the European Union on June 5, 2018.  This amendment follows publication of scientific opinions from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) on new substances that may be used in food contact materials and on the re-evaluation of substances that have been authorized for food contact use previously.