The Plastics Implementing Measure (PIM): Alistair Irvine reports

05 April 2011

A 30-year project to harmonise EU legislation on food-contact plastics is nearly at an end. Dr Alistair Irvine, Principal Consultant in Food Packaging Safety at Smithers Pira reports.

This article appeared in the March-April 2011 issue of The Packaging Professional magazine, the magazine of the The Packaging Society.

When EU Regulation 10/2011, known as the Plastics Implementing Measure (or PIM), was published in January, it brought to a virtual conclusion a 30-year programme to harmonise EU legislation for plastics in contact with foods. On 1 May, PIM will come into force and replace EC Directive 2002/72/EC, its amendments and supporting documents. The PIM now provides a singledocument that outlines the standards and testing required for food-contact plastics, and this simplification should be welcome.

The basic format is largely the same as the collection of directives and regulations it replaces. It essentially contains the samepositive list of monomers and additives with the same restrictions on their levels in foods, although this list now appears in a revised format. The key differences in the PIM are centred on the conditions and food simulants used for migration testing of materials, and also in the way that the legislation treats multilayer multimaterial packaging, such as paper/plastics laminates.

Read the full article now

Coverage includes:

• Food simulants
• Specific migration tests
• Overall migration
• Multilayer materials
• Transition arrangements
• What else is on the horizon?
• The seven testing stages stipulated for assessing overall migration (OM)