On November 30, 2018, the European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) Panel on Food Contact Materials, Enzymes and Processing Aids (CEP Panel) published a scientific opinion on the post-consumer polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recycling process ‘RecyPET Hungária,’ based on RecyPET Hungária technology. The recycled PET (rPET) from this process is intended to be used “for manufacture of bottles for soft drinks or water,” the CEP Panel informed. Hot caustic washed and dried PET flakes from post-consumer PET containers, comprising no more than 5% PET from non-food consumer applications, are used as input to this process. The PET flakes are dried, extruded, cut into pellets, recrystallized, and then transferred to a solid‐state polycondensation (SSP) reactor.
Based on the provided challenge test, the CEP Panel could “not conclude on the efficiency of the decontamination process” and “a proper safety evaluation could not be performed.” Therefore, the CEP Panel concluded that “the process RecyPET Hungária is not sufficiently characterized and the applicant has not demonstrated in an adequately performed challenge test or by other appropriate evidence that the recycling process RecyPET Hungária is able to reduce contamination of the PET input to a concentration that does not pose a risk to human health.”
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CEP (November 30, 2018). “Safety assessment of the process ‘RecyPET Hungária’, based on RecyPET Hungária technology, used to recycle post‐consumer PET into food contact materials.”
