Revision of EU Rules on FCMs
A revision of the EU legislation on FCMs was announced in May 2020 as part of the European Commission's Farm to Fork Strategy for a fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food system. In it, the Commission commits to revise the FCM legislation to improve food safety and public health (in particular in reducing the use of hazardous chemicals), support the use of innovative and sustainable packaging solutions using environmentally-friendly, re-usable and recyclable materials, and contribute to food waste reduction.
In addition, under the sustainable products initiative announced in the CEAP, it will work on a legislative initiative on re-use in food services to substitute single-use food packaging and cutlery by re-usable products. The key themes and pillars of the revision of EU FCM rules can be found in the table below.
The revision will be based on the findings of the Evaluation of current FCM legislation but will also reflect commitments given in other key strategies, including the Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP) and the Chemicals Strategy for sustainability towards a toxic-free environment.
The starting point for the revision is a roadmap (inception impact assessment) which the Commission published on its Have Your Say website. The roadmap was open for feedback from all stakeholders for six weeks and was supported by a webinar held on Wednesday 20th January 2021. The roadmap and a summary of the feedback can be found in the table below.
A 14 week public consultation was held between 5 October 2022 and 11 January 2023; a summary of the results can be found in the table below. Further consultation activities and study work will be carried out in order to develop a full impact assessment for the revision and eventual legislative proposal. In general, the same stakeholders as for the evaluation will be targeted to support the Commission in its work. Details of commissioned study work can be found below.
If you have any questions or comments on the revision of FCM legislation, you can email SANTE-FCM-REVISION@ec.europa.eu.
The following documents support the ongoing activities of the revision of the FCM rules:
| Description | Date | Output documents |
|---|---|---|
Roadmap (inception impact assessment): Revision of EU rules on food contact materials | 18 December 2020 | |
Webinar on the evaluation and revision of the EU rules on Food Contact Materials | 20 January 2021 | |
Summary of feedback from stakeholders on the roadmap (inception impact assessment) | 25 January 2022 | |
Copy of public consultation questionnaires (EN documentation tool only) | 5 October 2022 | |
Summary report of the public consultation | 15 June 2023 | |
Key themes and pillars of the revision of EU FCM rules | 5 May 2023 |
The following studies support the ongoing activities of the revision of EU FCM rules:
| Title/Description | Date | Output documents |
|---|---|---|
Study on citizen engagement The purpose of the study is to understand citizens’ level of knowledge and understanding of FCMs and potential risks they represent; citizens’ preferences when it comes to trade-offs between safety-hygiene-sustainability; citizens’ behaviours and usage of FCMs and; citizens information needs, preferences, and proposals for what information they would like to receive and how, including alternative proposals to the current labelling scheme | Ongoing – expected June 2023 |
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Study concerning information exchange, compliance and enforcement The study will focus on developing different options to support an IT infrastructure required for information exchange and then assess the impacts of these options. The study will also develop options and assess the impacts of those options, for verifying compliance, controls and the role of the different actors | Ongoing – expected January 2024 |
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Call for experts
Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE) unit E2 is looking for individual experts to support policy developments on food contact materials (FCM) at EU level area, in particular on the revision of the EU FCM legislation.