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General requirements are laid down in Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council on materials and articles intended to come into contact with food. This regulation allows the European Commission to publish specific measures for certain groups of food contact materials and articles. However, no such measures have been established for metals and alloys. Therefore, the Council of Europe has published a technical guide for metals and alloys used in contact with food, which supplements this regulation (‘Metals and alloys used in food contact materials and articles’, ISBN 97892-871-7703-2), which is based on Council of Europe Resolution CM/Res(2013)9 and provides detailed information on test conditions and analytical methods for metals and alloys used in contact with food. For example, the specific release limit for aluminium released from metals and alloys is 5 mg/kg. Other limits apply to chromium, copper, vanadium and more than 20 other metals and can be found in the technical guide, which also provides detailed information on test conditions and analytical methods for metals and alloys used in contact with food. Both the technical guide and Council of Europe Resolution CM/Res(2013)9 are recognised by most European national authorities.

This guide can be downloaded free of charge: https://freepub.edqm.eu/publications.

To order a hard copy via the EDQM Store, click ‘Catalogue’ under ‘Publications’, then ‘FOOD CONTACT’ on the left side of the page.

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