Lambré Claude, Crebelli Riccardo, da Silva Maria, Grob Koni, Milana Maria Rosaria, Pronk Marja, Rivière Gilles, Ščetar Mario, Theodoridis Georgios, Van Hoeck Els, Waegeneers Nadia, Dudler Vincent, Papaspyrides Constantine, de Fátima Tavares Poças Maria, Marano Remigio, Lampi Evgenia
EFSA J. 2025 Jul 2;23(7):e9491. doi: 10.2903/j.efsa.2025.9491. eCollection 2025 Jul.
The EFSA Panel on Food Contact Materials (FCM) assessed the safety of the recycling process Starlinger recoSTAR PET art (EU register number RECYC331). The input is hot washed and dried poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) flakes mainly originating from collected post-consumer PET containers, with no more than 5% PET from non-food consumer applications. The flakes are dried and crystallised (step 2), melted in an extruder (step 3), crystallised (step 4) and treated in a solid-state polycondensation (SSP) reactor under high temperature and vacuum (step 5). Having examined the challenge test provided, the Panel concluded that all the four steps are critical in determining the decontamination efficiency of the process; the SSP being the most relevant for decontamination. The operating parameters to control the efficiency are: the pressure, the temperature, the residence time and gas flow rate. It was demonstrated that this recycling process ensures that the level of migration of potential unknown contaminants into food is below the conservatively modelled migration of 0.0481 or 0.0962 μg/kg food, depending on the molar mass of a contaminant substance. Therefore, the Panel concluded that the recycled PET obtained from this process is not of safety concern, when used at up to 100% for the manufacture of materials and articles for contact with all types of foodstuffs, including drinking water, for long-term storage at room temperature or below, with or without hot-fill. Articles made of this recycled PET are not intended to be used in microwave and conventional ovens and such uses are not covered by this evaluation.
欧洲食品安全局食品接触材料专家委员会评估了Starlinger recoSTAR PET art回收工艺（欧盟注册号RECYC331）的安全性。其输入物是经过热洗和干燥的聚对苯二甲酸乙二酯（PET）片材，主要来源于收集的消费后PET容器，非食品消费用途的PET含量不超过5%。这些片材先进行干燥和结晶（步骤2），然后在挤出机中熔融（步骤3），再次结晶（步骤4），最后在高温和真空条件下于固相缩聚（SSP）反应器中进行处理（步骤5）。在审查了所提供的挑战试验后，专家委员会得出结论，所有这四个步骤对于确定该工艺的去污效率都至关重要；其中SSP步骤对去污最为关键。控制效率的操作参数包括：压力、温度、停留时间和气体流速。结果表明，这种回收工艺可确保潜在未知污染物向食品中的迁移水平低于保守模拟的迁移量，即根据污染物物质的摩尔质量，迁移量为0.0481或0.0962μg/kg食品。因此，专家委员会得出结论，当将以此工艺获得的再生PET以高达100%的比例用于制造与包括饮用水在内的所有类型食品接触的材料和制品，并在室温或更低温度下长期储存（无论是否进行热灌装）时，不存在安全问题。用这种再生PET制成的制品不打算用于微波炉和传统烤箱，本评估不涵盖此类用途。
