The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Panel on Food Contact Materials, Enzymes, Flavourings and Processing Aids, charged with assessing the safety of recycled materials, gave Phoenix’s recycled PET (rPET) its seal of approval.
Global packaging
Lori Carson, director of commercial operations for Phoenix Technologies, told FoodProductionDaily EFSA certification is important to serve European food and packaging firms, and global brand owners selling into the market.
“This certification gives them an additional comfort level that rPET produced via this process can be used as an up-to-100% replacement for virgin PET without any safety issues,” she said. "Also, it allows our brand owner customers to move product between continents without concern about food safety status."
Safe food use
The EFSA panel said in a statement food and beverage companies can safely use the material in a range of applications.
“The recycled PET obtained from the process Phoenix ESPS [extra small particle size], intended to be used at 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 hot-fill, is not considered of safety concern,” the panel concluded.
Prior certification
The recycling process has been allocated EU register number RECYC035. The company already has received “letters of no objection” for its rPET small-particle process by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Health Canada.
Phoenix Technologies’ rPET material is suitable for producing packaging and bottles for food, beverages, and other products. The company provides rPET resin pellets from post-consumer recycled plastic flake for packaging producers.