Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend, for England, the Plastic Materials and Articles in Contact with Food Regulations 1998 (“the 1998 Regulations”), which apply to Great Britain. These Regulations implement Commission Directive 1999/91/EC amending Directive 90/128/EEC relating to plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with foodstuffs.

These Regulations—

(a)

update the lists of monomers and additives which can be used in the manufacture of plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with food (regulations 10 and 11 and Schedules 1 and 2);

(b)

impose restrictions and specifications in respect of some of those monomers and additives (regulations 5(a), 6, 8, 10, 11 and 12 and Schedules 1, 2 and 4); in particular, a new type of restriction is introduced (maximum permitted quantity of the substance in the finished material or article expressed as mg per 6 dm² of the surface in contact with food);

(c)

bring products obtained by bacterial fermentation within the scope of the 1998 Regulations and impose restrictions and specifications for such products (regulations 4, 5(b), 7 and 12 and Schedule 3);

(d)

include a transitional provision (regulation 9); and

(e)

make some consequential amendments (regulations 3 and 13(a)) and correct two errors in the 1998 Regulations (regulations 10(d) and 13(b)).

A regulatory impact assessment, which includes a compliance cost assessment of the effect which these Regulations have on business costs, has been prepared and placed in the Library of each House of Parliament. Copies may be obtained from Branch 4 of the Chemical Safety and Toxicology Division of the Food Standards Agency, Ergon House, P.O. Box 31037, Horseferry Road, London SW1P 3WG.