On May 11, 2016 the Ex-Post Impact Assessment Unit of the Directorate for Impact Assessment and European Added Value, within the European Parliament’s (EP) Directorate-General for Parliamentary Research Services, published an implementation assessment study on the food contact materials (FMCs) Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004. The study is an in-house supporting document to the EP’s own-initiative procedure (INI) report on the implementation of the EU FCM framework regulation (FPF reported). On April 26, 2016 the EP’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) published a draft report within the scope of said initiative (FPF reported).
The Ex-Post Impact Assessment Unit based their report on the responses of a stakeholder survey on the implementation of the FCM regulation conducted by the Unit between December 2015 and February 2016. The majority of participating stakeholders reported that “the lack of specific measures at EU level for some food contact materials/articles negatively impacts the functioning of the internal market for the relevant material/article and its food safety.” Stakeholders, including industry, consumers, environmental and health organizations, researchers, as well as Member States’ competent authorities, are in favor of specific EU-wide measures for those FCMs that are not yet harmonized at EU level.
Michael Warhurst of non-profit organization CHEM Trust stated that the organization “welcomes this new study from the European Parliament’s Research Service, which echoes much of what we’ve been saying over recent years.” Warhurst further added that “it’s not acceptable for an everyday chemical exposure like food contact materials to not have proper EU regulation.”
Read more
Michael Warhurst (May 12, 2016). “European Parliament study and draft MEP report confirm problems with EU laws on food contact chemicals.” CHEM Trust
Reference
European Parliamentary Research Service (May 2016). “Food contact materials – Regulation (EC) 1935/2004 – European implementation assessment.” (pdf)
