Recycled plastic in food packaging guidance

The FDA document, entitled Points to Consider for the Use of Recycled Plastics in Food Packaging: Chemistry Considerations,​ evaluates a number of uses for recycling plastic into food packaging, and states what companies seeking to use these products need to do.

This is important guidance. The FDA actively encourages the recycling of plastic packaging materials to make new food containers, but has a number of safety concerns over the use of recycled plastic materials in food-contact articles.

For example, the agency is worried that contaminants from the post consumer material may appear in the final food-contact product made from the recycled material, and that recycled post-consumer material not regulated for food-contact use may be incorporated into food-contact packaging.

In addition, adjuvants in the recycled plastic may not comply with the regulations for food-contact use. In order to address these concerns therefore, the FDA considers each proposed use of recycled plastic on a case-by-case basis and issues informal advice as to whether the recycling process is expected to produce plastic suitable for food-contact applications.

Therefore, if a manufacturer would use recycled plastic for a food-contact application it must first submit critical information to the FDA. This includes providing a complete description of the recycling process, including a description of the source of the recyclable plastic and a description of any source controls in place intended to ensure that only plastic that initially complied with the applicable regulations is recycled.

Also, a description is needed of any steps that are taken to ensure that the recyclable plastic is not contaminated at some point, either before collection for recycling, or during the recycling process.

The results of any tests performed to show that the recycling process removes possible contaminants must also be sent to the FDA. For use of the recycled material as a substitute for plastic made from virgin materials, it would be necessary to either show that there has been no possibility of contamination with substances other than food or to demonstrate, through surrogate contaminant testing and, if appropriate, additional migration testing, that your recycling process successfully removes possible contaminants.

However, surrogate contaminant testing is no longer considered necessary to demonstrate that post-consumer recycled (PCR) polyethylene terephthalate (PET) or polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) produced by a tertiary recycling process is suitable for food-contact use. Because FDA has determined that tertiary recycling processes produce PCR-PET or PEN of suitable purity for food-contact use, the agency no longer sees a need to evaluate tertiary recycling processes for PET or PEN or to issue individual opinion letters for them.

The FDA document is available on the agency's website​.