SABIC publishes new food safety and compliance declarations

SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corporation) has published new food safety and compliance declarations for its polyolefins (polyethylenes and polypropylenes) on its website to allow its clients to gain assurance on regulatory compliance.

Three years ahead of the 2016 deadline, SABIC is one of the first producers of plastics to the European food industry to have all its food contact declarations updated in line with changes to EU regulations. The company has retested all its polyolefins packaging materials to ensure they comply with the new testing conditions.

The new EU regulations require more stringent testing on packaging migration into food. Once the regulations are in full force, plastics processors and packaging companies will need to seek further assurances on compliance from their materials suppliers.

EU Plastics Regulation (EU) 10/2011 (PIM) introduces several changes, particularly regarding testing conditions for migration of individual chemicals and in what can be used in the tests to simulate actual foods. The new regulation will not become compulsory until 1 January 2016 but will sit alongside existing food contact legislation in the meantime.

For PE and PP (polyethylenes and polypropylenes), SABIC has already assessed all substances regulated with a specific migration limit (SML) under the new conditions (10 days at 60°C). Its tests showed that none of its PE or PP materials will be subject to additional restrictions for use in food contact applications.

“This is a clear demonstration of the company’s commitment to the packaging market, which accounts for close to a third of all its polymer sales in Europe. SABIC carries out regular compliance tests,” said Mark Vester, Business Director for LL/LDPE at SABIC. “By doing this, we are meeting our obligations to our customers under Responsible Care.”

“SABIC considers the provision of product safety and compliance information as an important customer service,” said Jos Hennen, Senior Global Product Steward food contact and healthcare for polyolefins at SABIC. “We support customers to ensure that our plastics are used in a safe way all along the value chain.”

More information is available on the SABIC Plastics page: plastics.sabic.eu/_en/.