France: French DGCCRF published documents for food contact articles

July 2016

Relevant for: Food, Hardlines

On 7 June 2016, the French Directorate General for Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) published documents, DM/4B/COM/002-V01^[1], DM/4B/COM/003-V01^[2] and DM/4B/COM/004-V01^[3], regarding the procedures on verifying the suitability of materials intended to come into contact with food. The documents became effective on 1 May 2016.

DM/4B/COM/002-V01 stated the recommendation from DGCCRF for inorganic materials excluding metals and alloys. It included additional requirements for ceramics which were same as the reference value reported earlier in E-ssentials Volume 5 of 2016^[4]. The document also stated that these additional requirements are applicable to glass, crystal, glass ceramics, enameled objects intended to come into contact with food.

There were no technical amendments for both DM/4B/COM/003-V01 which stated the requirements for organic materials based on synthetic materials including composites, plastics and rubbers and DM/4B/COM/004-V01 which stated the requirements for organic materials based on plant fibers including coated and uncoated paper and paperboard compare to Information Notice No. 2004-64 (NI 2004-64)^[5] . The details of the procedures on verifying the suitability for food contact are stated in each document.

Since the publication of Information Notice No. 2014-108 (NI 2014-108)^[6] on general requirements for materials and articles intended to come into contact with food, DGCCRF has been updating each note of NI 2004-64. Upon publishing the documents DM/4B/COM/002-V01, DM/4B/COM/003-V01 and DM/4B/COM/004-V01, NI 2004-64 is replaced completely. Table 1 shows a summary on the documents that replaces NI 2004-64.

Table 1. Summary on documents that replaces NI 2004-64.

^{[1] DM/4B/COM/002-V01
[2] DM/4B/COM/003-V01
[3] DM/4B/COM/004-V01
[4] E-ssentials Volume 5 of 2016
[5] NI 2004-64
[6] NI 2014-108}