Metals and alloys are widely applied as food contact materials, e.g. as process equipment in the food industry and as household utensils. Therefore, they are a potential source of food contamination. Migration of substances from food contact materials to food must not occur in amounts that endanger human health. Relevant for food contact materials made from metals and alloys are the migration (release) of metals, both the main components and foreseen impurities. In-house control based on a declaration of compliance, DoC, and supporting documentation at the producers and importers are important prerequisites to limit this contamination and to ensure compliance with the legislation. This is considered a general part of quality assurance, even though the European legislation does not specifically require a DoC for metals and alloys used as food contact materials. This Nordic guideline gives a short overview of toxicology, analytical feasibility, legislation and guideline values for release of metals from food contact materials. Therefore, the guideline will be a useful tool for industry and official food inspectors. The guideline is based on the work done by the Council of Europe, risk assessments from the European Food Safety Authority, EFSA, and by the WHO/FAO Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives, JECFA. Additional sources of information on metals in food are the plastic food contact material (EU regulation 10/2011) and the contaminants legislation (EU regulation 1881/2006). Vanadium 0.01 Zinc 5 a Deriving an SRL was found unneccessary. The outcome of this work is to recommend these values as guideline values for release from food contact materials made of metals and alloys, and to give additional Nordic comments, e.g. concerning toxicology and analytical feasibility.

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