Brazil Adopts Updated Positive List for Plastic FCMs

On December 4, 2019, Brazil’s National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) published Resolução Da Directoria Colegiada (RDC) No. 326, de 3 de Dezembro de 2019 (RDC 326/2019), the Technical Regulation on the positive list of additives for the preparation of plastic materials and polymeric coatings intended to contact food. RDC 326/19 incorporates Mercosur GMC Resolution 39/2019 into Brazilian law. It repeals RDC 17/2008 and becomes effective 180 days from the date of adoption. RDC 326/19 applies to additives and adjuvants used in plastic materials and polymeric coatings that directly contact with food. Among other things, it establishes a list of additives that may be used in plastic food-contact materials, as well as specific migration limits and other restrictions on the use of such substances.

By way of background, Brazil is a member of Mercosur (Mercado Común Del Sur or the “Common Market of the South”), the largest trade bloc in South America. Regulations and resolutions adopted by Mercosur, including those impacting food contact materials (FCMs), must be transposed into the national law of the Mercosur Member States to have legal effect in these jurisdictions. Mercosur’s Technical Regulation on the positive list of additives for plastic materials and polymeric coatings intended to contact food (GMC Res. 39/19) was adopted on July 15, 2019 (replacing GMC Res. 32/07). For more information on GMC Res. 39/19, see the PackagingLaw.com article, Mercosur’s Updated Additives Positive List Discussed at KH Seminar.