13 - Recycled plastics for food applications: improving safety and quality

Abstract

The use of recycled plastics for food packaging has continued and would likely increase due to the high price of crude oil, a feedstock for the petrochemicals used in the manufacture of plastics, as well as the recent advances in plastic recycling technologies that allow improved quality and safety of post-consumer recycled plastics intended for food packaging applications. This chapter focuses on recent efforts at improving the safety and quality of recycled plastics for food-contact applications in the context of the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) recent recycled plastics guidance document. Several types of plastics are used in packaging. To provide a consistent national system that facilitates the collection and recycling of post-consumer plastics through the normal channels for collecting recyclable materials from household waste, the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) developed the resin identification code system for common plastics used in the manufacture of containers. The SPI code system applies to six homogeneous plastics and one heterogeneous material category. To improve the recyclability of plastic packaging for food-contact use, controls on the source of post-consumer plastics as well as limitations on the use of the specific recycled article are needed to ensure the quality and safety of the recycled materials for the proposed food-contact application.