What Are The Rules To Be Followed In Food Packing?

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has made a new set of stringent rules for food packing. The FDA is severely cracking down on any manufacturer of foodstuff that violates these rules. This includes a ban on the use of recycled plastics and other recycled materials as packaging materials for edible, and especially perishable, commodities. There are strict regulations about the use of food additives such as the artificial sweetener, saccharine. According to the FDA, it is easier to control the use of direct additives such as saccharine, but it is far more difficult to regulate the use of indirect additives in packaged food articles.

About 55 per cent of the 105 requests for alternative materials for packaging approved by the FDA were delayed for over two years. All manufacturers of food articles must obtain a no-objection certificate before using recycled materials. However this is a highly costly affair. Foods that fall below the minimum dietary concentration level of 0.5 parts per billion and those that are non-carcinogenic were exempted from the purview of regulation packing materials by the FDA with effect from the month of July 2005. The approval process takes a long time because of the environmental assessment which must accompany the non-objection letter.