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Food Packaging Safety Regulations

Protect the public and protect your brand

Searching for light pleasure reading? The U.S. Food and Drug Administration food contact safety regulations don't qualify. A single example from one of the FDA's 21 CFR chapters illustrates why: “…polyester epoxy urethane adhesives formulated from the following: a) polyester resin formed by the reaction of polybasic acids and polyhydric alcohols listed in section 175.300 (b) (3) (viii) (a) of this chapter. Azelaic acid may also be used as a polybasic acid… .”

Food Contact Safety Regulations Merit Scrutiny

Yet such regulations are critical for ensuring the safety of the food we eat and, therefore, for companies converting and utilizing multi-layer structures for food packaging. Yes, they're lengthy and complicated, but the FDA has convincing data to support their exhaustive recommendations. The agency's success record includes milestones like improving infant formula content, vanquishing botulism in canned foods and labeling products with possible food allergens. From its first industry guidance in 1949 on evaluating chemical toxicity in food, the FDA has clearly stated its position and underscored the food industry's challenge: that inappropriate food contact poses serious harm to food supplies and the public. Contamination also may unleash lasting public censure, principally for consumer products companies wherever they may do business: witness the recent furor in Italy when a printing ink affected baby formula.

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