New developments concerning compliance of PVC with European food contact regulations: threats or opportunities?

PVC has been used in food contact applications for many years, both in its rigid and plasticised form. The control of this use in Europe is given by a number of specific regulations on food contact materials and this regulatory scene is evolving constantly as a result of both technical progress and the need for harmonisation of legislation throughout the European Community. The position of PVC products with respect to recent European directives, such as Directive 2002/72/EC and its amendments, the new framework regulation 1935/2004 and the proposed 'super directive' or 'super regulation' on food contact materials, will be reviewed and discussed. Of particular interest is the recognition, in Directive 2002/72/EC, that certain types of diffusion models, based on experimental data, may be used for certain types of polymers as a substitute to complex, costly and time consuming migration testing. The present study will present some new data for PVC polymers pertaining to this development.