Seminars

Regional seminar on ‘Food Contact Materials and Safety Requirements applicable to Recycled Plastic’, Bangkok (Thailand) - 26-27 June 2023

Overview

The Regional Seminar will contribute directly to the general objective to improve regulatory cooperation on SPS matters between competent authorities of the EU, EU MS and Asian partner countries. This seminar aims at strengthening the cooperation on Food Contact Materials (FCMs) between European and Asian countries.

Food contact materials are materials and articles intended to come into contact with food at any stage of production, preparation and consumption. FCM include food packaging materials and articles, kitchenware, appliances, and food processing equipment. FCM can be made from variety of materials, such as plastics, woods, papers, metals, rubbers, glass and ceramics. None of these materials are completely inert. Constituents of these materials (chemicals) may migrate (transfer) into food and harm the health of food consumers. Consequently, the safety of FCM must be evaluated and regulated in order to protect consumer’s health. The resulting legislation and the scientific work it requires to establish compliance is technically complex and requires a high level of understanding. Also, an important objective of the seminar is to increase the awareness of Asian competent authorities on the need to audit recyclers that want to export recycled plastics to the EU.

Documentation

Agenda

Please find the link to download the agenda below.

Download

Speakers

List of Speakers

Presentations

Commission Regulation (EU) N° 10/2011 on plastic FCM and articles

European approach to Official Controls applicable to FCM

New FCM policies Recycling, Revision

Overview of the EU Legal Framework for Food and introduction to EU approach on Food Safety

Safety assessment of substances mixtures from renewable biological resources

The general and specific requirements for compliance of FCM

Update on ASEAN Guidelines on FCM

Photos

A few photos from the event :

Seminar on import of plant and plant products into Thailand - 24-25 March 2021

Overview

Exports from the European Union (EU), with their wide and diverse range of products from various Member States, provide an interesting opportunity for the Thai market, and Asian markets in general. Improving market access to and from the EU could present numerous and exciting possibilities for business operators and for trade between the two regions.

Increased knowledge of the EU phytosanitary control and certification systems would be an important step and would hopefully allow the Thai competent authority to streamline approval procedures and (1) apply the same import conditions to more than one Member State without going through redundant evaluations, and (2) rely on EU authorities to control and enforce the required import conditions without insisting on the formal adoption of detailed protocols.

This seminar aims to create an opportunity for officials of the Thai government and the European Union, as well as representatives of Thai and European business operators, to build contacts and deepen the understanding of phytosanitary control systems established in the EU and in Thailand.

The objectives are:

To strengthen and facilitate exchange among policy makers and the fruit and vegetable industry on both sides
To better understand decision making structures in Thailandwith regard to market access
To accelerate market access for pending (European) dossiers
To discuss challenges for market access for fruits and vegetables to the EU and Thailand