Safety assessment of the process ‘BTB PET DIRECT IV* +’, used to recycle post‐consumer PET into food contact materials

. Efsa Panel On Food Contact Materials, Enzymes, Flavourings And Processing Aids (cef) (1) , Vittorio Silano , Claudia Bolognesi , Laurence Castle , Kevin Chipman , Jean Pierre J. P. Cravedi (2) , Karl‐heinz Engel , Paul Fowler , Roland Franz , Konrad Grob , Rainer Gürtler , Trine Husøy , Sirpa Kärenlampi , Wim Mennes , Karla Pfaff , Gilles Rivière , Jannavi Srinivasan , Maria de Fátima Tavares Poças , Christina Tlustos , Detlef Wölfle , Holger Zorn , Vincent Dudler , Nathalie Gontard (3) , Eugenia Lampi , Cristina Nerin , Constantine Papaspyrides , Cristina Croera , Maria Rosaria Milana

1 EFSA - European Food Safety Authority
2 ToxAlim - ToxAlim
3 UMR IATE - Ingénierie des Agro-polymères et Technologies Émergentes

This scientific opinion of the EFSA Panel on Food Contact Materials, Enzymes, Flavourings and Processing Aids (CEF Panel) deals with the safety evaluation of the recycling process BTB PET direct IV+ (EU register number RECYC0152). The input of the process is hot caustic washed and dried poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) flakes originating from collected post-consumer food contact PET containing no more than 5% of PET from non-food consumer applications. In this technology, washed PET flakes are extruded into pellets which are further crystallised. Crystallised pellets are then preheated and fed to the solid-state polycondensation (SSP) reactor. Having examined the challenge test provided, the Panel concluded that extrusion, crystallisation and SSP are the critical steps that determine the decontamination efficiency of the process. The operating parameters that control their performance are well defined and they are temperature, pressure and residence time. Under these conditions, it was demonstrated that the recycling process is able to ensure that the level of migration of potential unknown contaminants into food is below the conservatively modelled migration of 0.1 mu g/kg food. Therefore, the Panel concluded that the recycled PET obtained from this process, intended to be used up to 100% for the manufacture of materials and articles for contact with all types of foodstuffs for long-term storage at room temperature, with or without hotfill, is not considered of safety concern. Trays made of this recycled PET are not intended to be used, and should not be used, in microwave and conventional ovens.

Mots clés: PET direct IV+; food contact materials; plastic; poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET); recycling process; safety assessment

Mots clés: BTB

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

. Efsa Panel On Food Contact Materials, Enzymes, Flavourings And Processing Aids (cef), Vittorio Silano, Claudia Bolognesi, Laurence Castle, Kevin Chipman, et al.. Safety assessment of the process ‘BTB PET DIRECT IV* +’, used to recycle post‐consumer PET into food contact materials. EFSA Journal, 2018, 16 (4), 13 p. ⟨10.2903/j.efsa.2018.5227⟩. ⟨hal-02618064⟩