The European Union (EU) is currently evaluating its legislation on food contact materials (FCMs). So far, this process has identified some potential concerns due to the lack of harmonized regulations at the EU level for many types of FCMs. Nonetheless, the European Commission (EC) recently extended the timeline for finalizing any proposals to revise FCM legislation to the fourth quarter of 2022. Due to the delay in completing this process, Germany, which had previously paused in its development of its own legislation to regulate FCMs, is now once again moving forward on its own. Additionally, Switzerland, while not an EU member, has made recent updates to its FCM regulations.
We’ll start with a discussion of the status of EU’s review of its FCM legislation and the steps taken to get there and then look at recent updates to national FCM legislation, especially those in Germany and Switzerland.