New food packaging guide publishes

The guide will help companies that, in the course of their business, manufacture or use materials and articles intended to come into contact with food. It also applies to those that could be brought into contact with food or that could be the source of chemical migration into food. These materials and articles include food packaging, processing and serving equipment, kitchen utensils, tableware and patio-ware, cooking pots and pans. The advice is also relevant to environmental and port health and trading standards officers involved in the enforcement of the law governing chemical migration from these materials and articles. The guide is for those that operate in the United Kingdom, and refers to parallel legislation in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland where appropriate. The guide has been developed with feedback from a workshop for businesses and enforcement officers held in November 2008, from responses to a full three-month public consultation and from an Agency-funded trial between cooperating business and enforcement authorities.