Safety assessment of the process brtCOMBIPET used to recycle post‐consumer PET into food contact materials

EFSA FCM Panel (EFSA Panel on Food Contact Materials); Lambré, Claude; Crebelli, Riccardo; da Silva, Maria; Grob, Koni; Milana, Maria Rosaria; Pronk, Marja; Rivière, Gilles; Ščetar, Mario; Theodoridis, Georgios; Van Hoeck, Els; Waegeneers, Nadia; Dudler, Vincent; Papaspyrides, Constantine; Tavares Poças, Maria de Fátima; Lioupis, Alexandros; Tsochatzis, Emmanouil; Lampi, Evgenia

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.18/10666

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Authors

EFSA FCM Panel (EFSA Panel on Food Contact Materials)

Milana, Maria Rosaria

Pronk, Marja

Rivière, Gilles

Ščetar, Mario

Theodoridis, Georgios

Abstract(s)

The EFSA Panel on Food Contact Materials (FCM) assessed the safety of the recycling process brtCOMBIPET (EU register number RECYC338). The input is washed and dried poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) flakes mainly originating from collected post‐consumer PET containers, with no more than 5% PET from non‐food consumer applications. The flakes are dried (step 6), melted in an extruder (step 7) and pelletised, dried and crystallised (step 8). The pellets are then preheated, further crystallised, then decontaminated in a solid‐state polymerisation (SSP) reactor (step 9) and cooled down. Having examined the challenge tests provided, the Panel concluded that the extrusion, the preheating and the SSP are critical in determining the decontamination efficiency of the process. The operating parameters to control the performance are the temperature and the pressure for step 7 (extrusion) as well as the temperature, residence time and gas flow rate for step 9 (preheating and SSP). It was demonstrated that this recycling process ensures that the level of migration of potential unknown contaminants into food is below the conservatively modelled migration of 0.0481 or 0.0962 μg/kg food, depending on the molar mass of the contaminant substance. Therefore, the Panel concluded that the recycled PET obtained from this process is not of safety concern, when used at up to 100% for the manufacture of materials and articles for contact with all types of foodstuffs, including drinking water, for long‐term storage at room temperature or below, with or without hot‐fill. Articles made of this recycled PET are not intended to be used in microwave and conventional ovens and such uses are not covered by this evaluation.

Description

EFSA Panel on Food Contact Materials (FCM) Members: Claude Lambré, Riccardo Crebelli, Maria da Silva, Koni Grob, Evgenia Lampi, Maria Rosaria Milana, Marja Pronk, Gilles Rivière, Mario Ščetar, Georgios Theodoridis, Els Van Hoeck, and Nadia Waegeneers.

Keywords

Zhejiang BORETECH Environmental Engineering Co. LTD brtCOMBIPET Food Contact Materials Plastic Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) Recycling Process Safety Assessment Genotoxicidade Ambiental