Food Contact Materials Regulation

Monday, 10_th February 2025

8.50
Opening Remarks
Dr Bernard Hegarty, Director of Enforcement Policy, Food Safety Authority of Ireland

• FCM and the EU’s Green Deal: recent progress and future challenges
• Reducing FCM related hazards: Where do we stand?
• What chemicals and safety profiles can we rely on?
• Conclusions from scientific progress
• What are the current gaps in the new legislation?

• Challenges with FCM
• Avoiding waste
• Reusability and recycling
• Microplastics and where it all ends up
• Restricting PFAS, and how to deal with it
• What can industrial stakeholders improve?

• Regulation: the EU and the world
• Regulatory requirements and where they come from
• Establishing a Circular Economy: what does it take?
• Recycling trends from a company’s point of view
• Challenges with PFAS in FCM

• Current and future reporting obligations: CSRD and CS3D
• Specific Implementation challenges for the paper packaging industry: the new EU Deforestation Regulation
• Conclusion – increased regulatory scrutiny and litigation risks
• PFAS in the US and in the EU

• Current developments in the EU and how they relate to Asian national frameworks
• Key markets and challenges

• The bigger picture: sustainability as a shared goal?
• Focal questions:

– Endocrine Disruptors
– Phtalates
– PFAS
– Post-consumer plastics

• US requirements…
• … and what is going on in LATAM
• The authorities‘ approach to risk management vs hazard
• The US within the international legal framework
• How does that compare to the EU?
• Impact of PFAS restrictions and of contradicting regulatory concepts: the US vs EU

• Legal framework
• Preparing for the worst case (SOPs, templates, etc.)
• Managing an incident (communications with authorities, the public, etc.)
• Reviewing an incident/Lessons learnt
• Cross-border considerations

16.10
Food Packaging Requirements – Current State and Outlook on
Compliance Challenges

• Different pieces of regulation: How to establish synergies

– Food law, chemicals regulation, PPWR, recycling requirements
– Declaration of conformity

• Risk management as a key tool to focus on the most important requirements
• Science, risk parameters and compliance
• How can SMEs cope with the growing regulatory requirements?

Dr Thomas Gude, Thomas Gude GmbH

16.50 Chairman’s Closing Remarks

17.00 End of Day One

18.00 Evening Reception

Tuesday, 11th February 2025

8.55
Chairman’s Opening Remarks
Dr Bernard Hegarty, Director of Enforcement Policy, Food Safety Authority of Ireland

9.00
Risk Assessment of Food Contact Materials: Methodology and Practical Examples

• Risk assessment as regulatory element
• Methodology in the food contact materials sector
• The TTC decision tree (Threshold of Toxicological Concern)
• Data analytics: PMTs as a new hazard class

Dr Zahra Mazloomi, Product Stewardship Dispersion & Resin, BASF SE, Germany

9.40
How to Deal with NIAS in Food Contact Materials

• Definiton of NIAS (Non-intentionally added substances) and where they come from
• Identification and quantification
• Examples from the Food Contact Sector
• What the regulatory framework demands
• The path to the concept of SSbD (Safe and sustainable by design)

Malcolm Driffield, PhD, Managing Scientist - Food Safety and Food Contact
Materials, Exponent International Ltd, UK

10.20 Coffee Break

10.50
Food Packaging – the Future of Sustainable Solutions

• Beyond single use: recycling and reusability
• The regulatory framework – expectations within the EU

– Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR)
– How to substitute PFAS
– Enforcement

• What kind of materials will be used and needed in the future?
• Increasing effectiveness: avoiding and reducing waste

Dorota Napierska, PhD, Policy Officer on Toxic-Free Circular Economy, Zero
Waste Europe, Belgium

11.30
Food Contact Materials and Transportation Related Risks

• Challenges with unpacked raw materials
• Transport containers and what they are made of
• Avoiding migration in the context of cleaning and disinfection
• Further transport risks for food
• Identifying and mitigating risks

Hans-Dieter Philipowski, President, ENFIT - International Association –
Supply Chain Safety, Belgium

12.10 Lunch Break

13.30
Trends in Recycling, between Hope and Bankruptcy

• Ramifications of geopolitics, legislation and knowledge on the recycling sector
• The scientific dimension: what can be achieved by means of mechanical recycling?
• Remaining issues with NIAS
• Quality requirements and the EFSA’s point of view
• Challenges with labels, glues and printing ink

Dr Ulphard Thoden van Velzen, Senior Scientist Packaging Technology and
Recycling, Wageningen Food & Biobased Research, the Netherlands

14.10
Recycling: Safety Assessments

• EFSA’s perspective on DNA-reactive contaminants
• Studies on recycled polyolefines and what they tell about contaminations
• The putative role of decomposition products from printings
• How do safety assessments for recycling processes work?
• Challenges with implementation in industrial processes

Dr Christian Kirchnawy, Leitung Mikrobiologie und Zellkultur, OFI
Technologie & Innovation GmbH, Austria

14.50 Coffee Break

15.20
Using Artificial Intelligence to Predict Toxicity of Chemicals in Food

• The use of Artificial Intelligence: asking the right questions
• How accurate can predictions be?
• Case study: Brominated Flame Retardants (BFRs)
• Applying models of mutagenicity
• What do the authorities think?

Prof Christer Hogstrand, EFSA CONTAM Panel, and Department of
Analytical, Environmental and Forensic Sciences, King’s College London

16.30 Chairman’s Closing Remarks

16.40 End of the Conference