Recycled PET

Food-grade rPET: the register decides, not the specification

Recycled PET for food contact is governed by Regulation (EU) 2022/1616 — in force since October 2022 and applicable to material produced outside the EU as well. The technical specification is the easy part; the question that decides whether a lot can be used is whether the recycling installation that produced it is listed in the EU register.

What the regulation requires

• Recycled plastic for food contact must come from a recycling process and installation listed in the EU register of authorised operators; EFSA assesses the process, the Commission authorises it.
• The regulation applies to non-EU recycling and to products exported to the EU, so a Chinese installation can supply the EU market — from the register, not from a certificate of analysis alone.
• Good manufacturing practice obligations apply through the chain (quality control, traceability, documentation), and recycled plastic labelling rules were further clarified by Regulation (EU) 2025/2269.
• The converter and the brand placing the packaging on the market carry obligations too, which is why they ask the supplier for the register reference before anything else.

Documents we supply per lot

• The recycling installation's register reference (or an explicit statement that the grade is not from a listed installation and cannot be used for food contact).
• Lot certificate of analysis: intrinsic viscosity, PVC and other contaminant content, moisture, colour and form.
• Declaration of conformity inputs for the converter: composition, post-consumer origin of the feedstock and the intended use conditions covered.
• Traceability record from feedstock batch to delivered lot, so your own DoC and technical file can point at it.

Where non-listed material still has a route — and where it does not

Material from an installation that is not on the register cannot be used for food-contact packaging in the EU, and no amount of testing changes that: the requirement is on the process, not on the lot. What such material can be used for is non-food applications — sheet for non-food thermoforming, fibre, strapping, industrial parts — or as feedstock for a listed process elsewhere. We state which of those applies to the lot you are being quoted, in writing, before the order.

How we handle a food-contact enquiry

• You tell us the application: bottle-to-bottle preform, food tray sheet, or a packaging application with a defined contact type.
• We confirm whether the grade concerned comes from a listed installation, and if it does not, we say so and offer the non-food alternative rather than quoting around the question.
• We provide the lot documents with the shipment, not after it — your DoC has to exist before the packaging is placed on the market.
• If authorisation for a food-contact stream is in progress, we tell you the status as it stands instead of a date we cannot control.

Specifications

Frequently asked questions