On 20 September 2022, the new Regulation (EU) 2022/1616 was published, which entered into force on 10 October 2022, which repeals Regulation (EC) 282/2008 relating to recycled plastic materials and objects intended to come into contact with food products.
Specifically, the law regulates:
placing on the market of plastic materials and objects, intended to come into contact with food, containing recycled plastic;
the development and operation of technologiesrecycling plants, processes and facilities, to produce recycled plastic material for use in said plastic materials and articles;
use in contact with foodstuffs of recycled plastic materials and articles and of plastic materials and articles intended to be recycled.
According to the provisions of the regulation it is possible to place on the market materials and objects intended to come into contact with food (MOCA) of recycled plastic material manufactured:
con suitable recycling technologycapable of recycling waste into recycled plastic materials and articles which are sufficiently inert and microbiologically safe or with a new technologyprovided that this complies with Chapter IV of the Regulation.
Annex I of the regulation lists the recycling technologies suitable for the production of recycled plastic intended for the manufacture of FCMs, technologies already positively evaluated by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
To ensure transparency and facilitate control activities, the new regulation establishes the Union Register new technologies, recyclers, recycling processes, recycling schemes and decontamination facilitiesaccessible to the public on the website of the European Commission.
With regard to registration in the Union Registry, the Commission has published an information page, which
explains how to register and provides the necessary forms provides the template of the compliance monitoring summary sheet (Annex II of the regulation), aimed at summarizing the operation, control and monitoring of recycling plants in a standardized way, provides the declaration of conformity templates for recycled plastic materialwhich must be used by recyclers and converters (Annex III, Part A and Part B, of the regulation).
The regulation provides that the registration notification of new technologies, recyclers, recycling schemes and decontamination plants must be carried out, within the established deadlines, both to the European Commission and to the competent authority of the territory in which the plant is located, the Manager of the scheme or the Developer of the new technology.
As far as Italy is concerned, the notification must be sent to health authorities territorially competent in the field of MOCAusing the addresses listed in the List of territorially competent authorities and, for information, to the competent central authority, Ministry of Health, using the certified mail address [email protected].
With regard to the summary sheet of the compliance monitoring of the decontamination plants, the same must be sent, within the terms set by the regulation, exclusively to the competent local health authority where the plant is located and for information to the central competent authority, using the same addresses indicated above.