EFSA publishes scientific opinion on PET recycling process CPR Superclean PET
On October 17, 2013, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published scientific Opinion on the s…On October 17, 2013, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published scientific Opinion on the safety assessment of the process “CPR Superclean PET” used to recycle post-consumer PET into food contact materials.
According to the Commission Regulation (EC) No 282/2008 of 27 March 2008 on recycled plastic materials intended to come into contact with foods and amending Regulation (EC) No 2023/2006, EFSA is requested to evaluate recycling processes of plastic waste. In this context, the CEF Panel evaluated the process “CPR Superclean PET”.
The Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo, Spain, requested the evaluation of the recycling process CPR Superclean PET submitted by Extremadura Torrepet, S.L. The recycling process has been allocated the European Union register number RECYC002. It is deemed to recycle poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) pellets from PET containers, mainly bottles collected through post-consumer collection systems. The recycled pellets are intended to be used at up to 100 % for the manufacture of food contact materials and articles. These recycled materials and articles are intended to be used in direct contact with all kind of foodstuffs for long term storage at room temperature, with or without hotfill.
The process is composed of four steps. First the post-consumer collected PET containers, mainly bottles,are processed into washed and dried flakes, which are used as input of the CPR Superclean PET decontamination technology. Dried flakes are extruded under vacuum and pelletised (step 2). The pellets are then crystallised and pre-heated in a continuous system under inert gas (step 3) before being decontaminated in a solid state polymerisation (SSP) reactor at high temperature under vacuum (step 4).
Detailed specifications for the input materials are provid