Food Contact Materials: Japan Proposes Revising Specifications

The Japanese government has published a proposal through the World Trade Organization (WTO) to revise the country’s specifications for food contact materials including apparatus, containers and packaging (ACP) on September 10, 2024.

The proposed revisions concern the following:

A. General tests for ACP:

• Delete test methods: Xylene Solubility Substance Test, Strength Test, Heavy Metals Limit Test (Material Test), Arsenic Limit Test (Material Test) and n-Hexane Extract Test.
• Establish an overall migration test that measures the total amount of substances migrating from a sample into a food simulant.
• Modify the “Preparation Methods for the Test Solutions for Migration Tests”.

B. Delete some reagents, solutions and other reference materials that are no longer required to be specified.

C. Specifications by material type for ACP or their raw materials:

• Reorganize test methods.
• Set specifications for the overall migration in “Migration Specifications” that will be newly set in (1) “General Specifications” of (2) “Apparatus, or Containers and Packaging Made of Synthetic Resins”. The new specifications will not be applied to synthetic-resin ACP for which individual specifications are stated.
• Deletion of a number of specifications for various ACP.

The revisions are expected to be enforced within the 2025 calendar year.

Source

Official source