Legal requirement
A DoC is an important legal requirement for any plastic food contact material used in the EU.
The purpose of such a DoC is to certify to the food manufacturer or producer that any specific plastic article intended for use in contact with food complies with all relevant EU legislation and doesn’t leach toxic chemicals when it comes into contact with food. And is therefore safe to use.
Regulatory authorities as well as food safety auditors may wish to check your company’s DoC compliance, and are entitled to do so at any time.
The magic nine
A DoC is legally required to provide nine specific items of information. These are:
- Identity and address of the company issuing the DoC
- Identity and address of the manufacturer
- Identity of the materials/articles used in the product
- Date of declaration
- Confirmation of compliance with the requirements laid down in the framework regulation (EC) 1935/2004, the GMP regulation (EC) 2023/2006 and the plastics regulation (EU) 10/2011
- Appropriate information about substances involving specification restrictions, as set out in the (EU) 10/2011 regulations
- Appropriate information about dual-use additives
- Specifications about how the article is to be used
- Type of food with which it can come into contact
- Time and temperature in contact with food
- Maximum ratio of food contact surface area to volume
- Adequate information about any functional barriers.
If these information requirements are not complied with, you risk receiving a notice of non-conformity from the authorities in question, or from a food safety auditor.
There’s more detailed information about these nine items in the Vikan blog post entitled “What should you look for in a Declaration of Compliance?”
Go to blog post
FDA compliance, too
In addition to EU compliance, the materials used in Vikan cleaning equipment and food handling tools intended for food contact can comply with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) CFR article 21. This compliance is described in the “FDA Compliance” section, with reference to the relevant sections in this set of requirements.
It should be noted that within Europe compliance with FDA requirements alone is not sufficient. In the US, there is no requirement for migration testing of the finished article. Instead the plastic material itself is considered safe based on testing or is designated as exempt from testing.