China Issues New Standards for Additives in Food Packaging Materials     

"Hygienic Standards for Uses of Additives in Food Containers and Packaging Materials" (GB9685-2008) which was published by the Ministry of Health of China and the Standardization Administration of China (SAC) in September 2008, went into effect on June 1st, 2009, the same day the Food Safety Law of China became effective, indicating that China has become very strict in food packaging safety.
   The principles of using additives in food containers and food packaging materials, the varieties of additives and their application range, maximum proportion and, the specific migration limit (SML), maximum residue limit (MRL) and so on are clearly stipulated in the standards. It emphasized that additives not listed in the standard are forbidden from incorporation in food containers and food packaging materials.
   The varieties of additives in the new standard increased to 959 from just a few dozen in the old one, and the standard specifies a maximum proportion in plastic, paper and rubber materials that contact food, of additives like plasticizers, tougheners, curing agents, initiators, promoters, antioxidants, flame retardants, etc. And other related materials like adhesives, printing inks and pigments are also regulated.
   According to experts, the safety of disposable cups and imitation porcelain tableware will attract public attention under the new standard. It is said that the inner face of disposable cups with inferior quality in domestic market are generally covered with water-resisting film using reclaimed polyethylene as material. This material endangers people's health because harmful compounds are produced by cleavage reactions during the machining processes. Moreover, some disposable cups of inferior quality used to be printed on the outer face with inks containing benzene and toluene, for China had no national hygienic standard about printing ink before. However, such cups cannot be made under the new standard.
   The International Food Packaging Association indicated that some of the printing inks contain toxic chemicals like benzene, toluene and xylene that can greatly harm the human health and environment. While printing inks are widely used in plastic and paper materials used in food packaging. Thus it is required that food printing and packaging enterprises use environmentally friendly materials and printing inks during their production processes in the future, for the new standard has more strict regulations on the threshold proportions of these toxic chemicals.