Scientific Opinion on the safety assessment of the process ‘PET-M’ used to recycle post-consumer PET into food contact materials

This scientific opinion of the EFSA Panel on Food Contact Materials, Enzymes, Flavourings and Processing Aids deals with the safety evaluation of the recycling process PET-M (EU register No RECYC062). The input material for the process is washed and dried polyethylene terephthalate (PET) flakes originating from collected post-consumer PET containers, mainly bottles, containing less than 5 % of PET from non-food consumer applications. In this process, post-consumer washed and dried PET flakes are heated and dried in a mixing reactor, followed by mixing with a modifier, before being extruded under vacuum into pellets. Having examined the challenge test provided, the Panel concluded that steps 2 (heating and drying under air flow) and 4 (extrusion under vacuum and pelletisation) are the critical steps for the efficiency of decontamination. The operating parameters which control the performance of these steps are temperature, residence time and air flow, for step 2, and temperature, time and pressure, for step 4. It was demonstrated that the recycling process under evaluation is able to ensure that the level of migration of potential unknown contaminants into food is below a conservatively modelled migration of 0.1 μg/kg food derived from the exposure scenario for infants and 0.15 μg/kg food derived from the exposure scenario for toddlers. The Panel concluded that recycled PET obtained from the process PET-M is not of safety concern when it is used up to 60 % to manufacture bottles and up to 90 % to manufacture thermoformed trays and containers not used for packaging water.