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When regulators are active, will they be intelligent?

You don’t need me to tell you that food-contact materials requirements in the European Union are important to your business.

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 Given our global marketplaces today, many packaging makers who develop new materials or new structures or new uses have one eye on U.S. compliance and one on compliance in other countries, especially the EU.

So it’s news to hear that the EU has decided upon a specific new regulatory regime applicable to what they call “active and intelligent” packaging for food contact.

Active packaging would release or absorb substances in an attempt to improve or extend food quality. Think, for example, of an oxygen absorber. Intelligent packaging monitors the food or its environment, and it indicates when changes occur. For example, an indicator that changes color in the presence of microbial contamination.

The EU regulatory body EFSA plans to require evaluation of the safety of all such substances, labeling requirements for packaging containing them, and certifications of compliance by the company using the substance.

They are contemplating a full application process before marketing, including information about the substance and its migration and toxicology, followed by EFSA publication of a list of cleared substances they find to be safe.

The EU regulators think they are helping commerce by making this an EU-wide system, but from the point of view of outside companies, the new regulations set up a new barrier to entry to the European market.

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