Plastic Materials and Articles in Contact with Food Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998

A. Testing, reduction factors and definition of food types

1.  The testing of plastic materials and articles shall be carried out under the test conditions specified in Part V using a simulant or simulants selected in accordance with this Part and taking a new test specimen of the plastic material or article for each simulant used.

2.—(1) Where a test is carried out on a plastic material or article intended to come into contact with more than one food or group of foods and a reduction factor is specified for one or more of those foods groups or groups of foods which is not equivalent to the reduction factor specified for one or more of the other foods or groups of foods with which the plastic material or article is intended to come into contact—

(a) the reduction factor specified for each food or group of foods, as appropriate, shall be applied to the test result; and

(b) the plastic material or article shall be treated as being capable of transferring its constituents to food with which it may come into contact in excess of a migration limit specified in regulation 7 or Schedule 1 if, following application of the specified reduction factors, one or more of the results show that the material or article does not comply with that specified migration limit.

(2) For the purposes of this paragraph—

(a) a reduction factor is the figure which follows an “X” and oblique stroke in the group of columns headed “Simulants to be used” in the Table to Part IV;

(b) a reduction factor is specified for a food or group of foods where, in the Table to Part IV—

(i) the food or group of foods is described in the column headed “Description of food”; and

(ii) “X” is placed in a column headed by a specified simulant opposite that food or group of foods followed by an oblique stroke and a reduction factor; and

(c) a reduction shall be applied to a test result by dividing the result by that reduction factor.

3.  Food types are defined in the Table to this paragraph (referred to in this Part as “Table 1”).

TABLE 1

Definition	Meaning
Aqueous foods having a pH > 4·5	Foods in relation to which simulant A only is specified in the Table to Part IV
Acidic foods having a pH ≤ 4·5	Foods in relation to which simulant B only is specified in the Table to Part IV
Alcoholic foods	Foods in relation to which simulant C only is specified in the Table to Part IV
Fatty foods	Foods in relation to which simulant D only is specified in the Table to Part IV
Dry foods	Foods in relation to which no simulant is specified in the Table to Part IV