The Plastic Materials and Articles in Contact with Food (England) Regulations 2006

Special provisions relating to overall migration

7.—(1) Where a plastic material or article is intended to come into repeated contact with food and it is technically impossible to carry out the test described in paragraph 5, the test shall be so modified as to enable the level of migration occurring during the third such test to be determined and, subject to sub-paragraph (2), such a determination may be used to prove excess of an overall migration limit in relation to a plastic material or article.

(2) In any proceedings for an offence under these Regulations where it is alleged, following determination under sub-paragraph (1) above, that a plastic material or article does not comply with regulation 9 it shall be a defence for the person charged to prove that, if—

(a) three identical samples of the plastic material or article had been procured;

(b) one of them had been subjected to the appropriate test according with paragraph 4 above and the overall migration determined (M₁);

(c) the second and third samples had been subjected to the same conditions of temperature but the period of contact had been two and three times that specified and overall migration had been determined in each case (M₂ and M₃ respectively); and

(d) the plastic material or article had been deemed to comply with the overall migration limit relevant to it provided that either M₁ or M₃– M₂ did not exceed that overall migration limit,

the plastic material or article would not have been deemed to exceed that limit.