Meaning
A finished polymer article incorporates post-consumer or post-industrial recovered plastics that have been processed to be safe for direct contact with food. In the circular economy, recycled food packaging must meet strict safety standards to prevent the transfer of contaminants into the food.
Regulatory Standards
European and American authorities require that the recovery process undergo rigorous validation before the material can be used. When producing recycled food packaging, manufacturers must demonstrate that the decontamination process removes potential contaminants to levels that do not pose a risk to human health. This validation involves testing the process with surrogate contaminants to measure the cleaning efficiency.
Processing Challenges
Moulders face challenges due to the variability of the physical properties of the recovered resins. During the manufacture of recycled food packaging, fluctuations in melt flow index and the presence of residual contaminants can cause defects such as gels or inconsistent wall thickness in the finished containers. This variability requires operators to make frequent adjustments to the moulding parameters.
Decontamination Efficiency
Super-clean recycling technologies use high temperatures and vacuum stripping to clean the resin. Achieving a high decontamination efficiency allows for the safe incorporation of post-consumer resins into recycled food packaging.
