Safety assessment of the process Concept Plastics Packaging, based on the Gneuss 2 technology, used to recycle post-consumer PET into food contact materials

The EFSA Panel on Food Contact Materials, Enzymes and Processing Aids (CEP) assessed the safety of the recycling process Concept Plastics Packaging (EU register number RECYC300), which uses the Gneuss 2 technology. The input consists of washed and dried poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) flakes mainly originating from collected post-consumer PET containers, with no more than 5% PET from non-food consumer applications. The flakes are extruded challenge test provided, the Panel concluded that the decontamination in the extruder is critical in determining the decontamination efficiency of the process. The operating parameters to control the performance are the pressure, the temperature, the throughput, the rotor speed and the satellite screws speed. It was demonstrated that this recycling process is able to ensure a level of migration of potential unknown contaminants into food below the conservatively modelled migration of 0.10 lg/kg food, derived from the exposure scenario for infants, when such recycled PET is used at up to 90% in mixtures with virgin PET, and of 0.15 lg/kg food, derived from the exposure scenario for toddlers, when such recycled PET is used at up to 100%. Therefore, the Panel concluded that the recycled PET obtained from this process is not of safety concern when used for the manufacture of materials and articles at up to (a) 100% for contact with all types of foodstuffs except drinking water and (b) 90% in mixtures with virgin PET for contact with all types of foodstuffs, including drinking water, for long-term storage at room temperature or below, with or without hotfill. The final articles made of this recycled PET are not intended to be used in microwave and conventional ovens and such uses are not covered by this evaluation. (c) 2023 European Food Safety Authority. EFSA Journal published by Wiley-VCH GmbH on behalf of European Food Safety Authority.

Automated summary

The EFSA Panel evaluated the safety of a recycling process that uses Gneuss 2 technology to process washed and dried PET flakes. The evaluation found that the process can reduce the migration of potential unknown contaminants into food and can be used for manufacturing materials and articles that come into contact with various types of food.