Italy bans plastic food contact materials containing bamboo: the note from the Ministry of Health

The Italian Ministry of Health has published three notes relating to the trade and use of plastic food-contact materials containing bamboo "powder" or similar substances:

• Information note for the Health Departments of the Regions and Autonomous Provinces
• Information note for trade associations
• Information note for consumer associations.

With these notes, in line with the opinion of the European Commission’s Working Group on Food-Contact Materials (FCMs) expressed on 23^rd June 2021, the Italian Ministry of Health declares illegal materials intended for contact with food in plastic containing bamboo powder (ground fiber).

As already highlighted by the European Commission, the Italian ministerial notes reiterate that bamboo powder and similar substances, including corn, are not authorized by Regulation 2021/10 / EU for use as additives in the production of FCMs in plastic. EFSA, the European Food Safety Authority, has not yet published any risk assessment for these substances, therefore, the FCMs that contain them are considered unsuitable for contact with food.

From 2019 to March 2021, there are 65 alerts from the European Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) which highlighted the risk of melamine and formaldehyde release. These substances are, in fact, used in the composition of the resins used as binders, in these FCMs, between the plastic components and the vegetable powders mixed in it, in order to give the object hardness and compactness.

This ban, highlights the Italian Ministry of Health, became necessary "following the recent and repeated warnings relating to materials and objects intended for contact with food in plastic containing bamboo powder or similar substances and in consideration of the preventive actions shared with the European Commission and the other Member States in order to prevent the introduction of such materials / objects on the EU market".

These FCMs must not be confused with materials consisting of an unaltered bamboo structure that can continue to be sold on the European and national markets: the prohibition only concerns objects intended for contact with food in which the bamboo or corn "powders" are combined with the plastic resins.