Meaning
Validation protocols establish the decontamination efficiency of plastics recycling processes intended for food contact materials. The efsa challenge test evaluates the capability of a recycling technology to remove chemical contaminants from post-consumer plastic. It involves deliberately contaminating the polymer flakes with surrogate chemicals before processing them through the decontamination extruder or reactor.
This test ensures that the recycled plastic meets safety standards for food packaging.
Contaminant Challenge
Surrogate chemicals are selected to represent different chemical classes and molecular weights, including volatile and non-volatile compounds. These surrogates are mixed with the polymer before it undergoes the recycling process. Analyzing the concentration of surrogates before and after the treatment demonstrates the cleaning efficiency.
This step verifies that the process can handle highly contaminated input streams.
Regulatory Compliance
Achieving a high cleaning efficiency is required to obtain a positive opinion from European authorities. This evaluation determines whether the recycled polymer is safe for direct contact with food. Molders and brand owners rely on this validation to use recycled polyethylene terephthalate in beverage bottles.
Process Limit
Extrusion temperature and vacuum levels are parameters that must be maintained to match the test conditions. If these parameters drift below the validated limits, the decontamination process is no longer compliant. Molders must track these variables during production run.
