Italy amends regulation on stainless steel food contact materials

Italian Ministry of Health published Decree No. 163 to update parts with regard to stainless food contact materials (FCMs) under Regulation 1973/3/21 “Hygienic Decree on Packaging, Containers and Utensils for Personal Use and Food Contact” on 6 August 2015. The update was published on the Official Journal on 11 December 2015. All proposed updates were adopted with the effectiveness of the new decree.
 
The decree amends special migration of Chromium, Nickel and Manganese, overall migration of stimulants, test temperature ranges and time periods:
l  Cutlery and knives for repetitive use at high or room temperature in a short term,
l  Stainless steel materials that only contact water for repetitive use at high or room temperature in a short term.
 
Summary of Amended Test Conditions:
 

Product Category/Use Condition	Test Stimulant of Migration Test	Test Conditions
At room temperature in a long term	3% acetic acid	40℃, 10 days
For repetitive use at high or room temperature in a short term	3% acetic acid	100℃, 30 minutes
Cutlery and knives for repetitive use at high or room temperature in a short term	3% acetic acid	70℃, 30 minutes
Stainless steel materials that only contact water for repetitive use at high or room temperature in a short term	Deionised water	100℃, 30 minutes

 
Stainless steel materials are widely used as food contact materials around the world owing to its good properties of heat resistance, anticorrosion, mechanical processing and smooth appearance. Italy directs more concern on such materials with most frequent market enforcement among the EU countries.
 
Seeing from the past several years, Italy validated many notifications on FCMs on the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) Portal, among which nearly 80% FCMs are notified due to non-compliant stainless steel materials, such as dangerous levels of migration of Nickel, Chromium and Manganese or use of unauthorised stainless steel materials.
 
C&K Testing advises companies to choose authoritative testing companies to assess the migration (overall and special migration) according to the latest standards to facilitate the entry of Italy market.

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Further information
Italian Ministry of Health (in Italian)