CEPI, the Confederation of European Paper Industries, and CITPA, the Confederation of Paper and Board Converters in Europe, have revised their Industry Guideline for the compliance of paper and board materials and articles for food contact.

The purpose of the Industry Guideline is, in the absence of a specific measure for paper and board, to enable manufacturers of paper and board materials and articles intended for food contact to demonstrate compliance with the Framework Regulation, (EC) No 1935/2004.  The Guideline is however offered only as voluntary guidance for operators in the industry and there is no intention to replace existing national legislation, which will always take precedence.

Paper manufacturing companies, representing around 50% of the European production of packaging grades, and 20 major converting companies covering a large share of the European paper-based packaging production implemented the Industry Guideline during 2010, the first year of its publication. Many other papermakers and converters are in the process of adopting it in their operations. A further survey of the continuing uptake of the Guideline is foreseen in the coming months following the publication of this revised version.

When the Industry Guideline was conceived, relatively frequent revisions were foreseen to take account of developments. The specific aspects covered in this first revision are:

• the publication of the new CEPI Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)
• the coming into force of Commission Regulation on plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with food, (EC) No 10/2011)
• the update of German Recommendation on paper and board for food contact (BfR Rec. XXXVI) ,and
• the concerns over the presence of mineral oil hydrocarbons in food

The revision has been made by the same process as the first issue through the work of a Cross Industry Group. The Group will continue its monitoring activity of the sector and the collection of inputs to be taken into account for further revisions. “The paper and board industry has envisaged its Guideline as a moving document which needs to be updated. This is the challenge we have adopted within the industry, supplying safe products and demonstrating compliance with relevant legislation”, said John Swift, Chair of the Cross Industry Group responsible for drafting the Industry Guideline.