The Plastic Materials and Articles in Contact with Food Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2008

Required standard for non-migration of constituents of monomers

6.—(1) Subject to paragraphs (2) and (3), where a migration limit expressed in mg/kg is indicated in column 4 of the relevant section of Section A or B of Annex II in relation to any monomer, a plastic material or article manufactured from that monomer meets the required standard under this regulation if it is not capable of transferring constituents of that monomer to food with which the plastic material or article may come into contact in quantities exceeding the appropriate limit, and for the purposes of this paragraph the appropriate limit is —

(a) the number of milligrams expressed in column 4 released per kilogram of food in the case of any plastic material or article other than one specified in sub-paragraph (b); and

(b) one sixth of the number of milligrams expressed in column 4 per square decimetre of surface area of the plastic material or article if the plastic material or article comprises —

(i) an article which is a container or is comparable to a container or can be filled, having a capacity of less than 500 millilitres or more than 10 litres, or

(ii) sheet, film or other plastic material or article which cannot be filled or for which it is impracticable to estimate the relationship between the surface area of the material or article in question and the quantity of food in contact with that surface area.

(2) A plastic material or article manufactured from any monomer for which a migration limit in mg/kg is expressed in column 4 of Section A or B of Annex II is not deemed to be capable of transferring constituents of that monomer to food with which the plastic material or article may come into contact in quantities exceeding the appropriate limit in paragraph (1) if the only food with which that plastic material or article may come into contact is food to which regulation 9(5) applies.

(3) For plastic materials or articles brought or intended to be brought into contact with food for infants and young children the migration limits referred to in paragraph (1) shall always be applied in mg/kg.