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The glass packaging industry is committed to further strengthening and highlighting the health credentials of glass and providing our supply chains, customers and consumers with a safe and reliable packaging.
Thanks to its non-toxic properties, glass is one of the most suitable food packaging materials to protect consumer health and keep products safe (Dieter Schrenk, 2014). It’s exempt from European Union REACH Regulations (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemical substances) and is also the only widely used packaging material to be classified as “GRAS” (“generally recognised as safe”) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
22 March 2021
FEVE recommends using ISO 22000 standard for European container glass industry to ensure high quality and food safety for customers. ISO 22000 is a global standard for the industry.
19 March 2020
The container glass industry asks for support to maintain production of food, beverage, and pharmaceutical packaging during the current crisis.
20 December 2018
Container glass industry welcomes chance to contribute to future development of Product Environmental Footprint method.
14 July 2017
The container glass industry produces simple articles, like bottles and jars, that are defined as such under REACH regulation because their shape and surface determine their function. These articles are made of a unique substance called soda-lime silicate glass and do not contain any substances under REACH regulation.
7 July 2017
Chemicals, products, and waste should be the focus of food packaging work; only safe, recyclable materials should be used; closed-loop systems and permanent materials should be incentivized; environmental footprint methodology should consider chemical contaminants.
16 November 2016
The European container glass industry calls for harmonized food contact legislation. The Council of Europe’s EDQM has already started work on this. Evaluation of materials for food contact should focus on finished materials and manufacturing processes, not substances used to produce them.
All health risks associated with hazardous packaging materials and chemicals must be properly identified and addressed by regulatory authorities.
Recent studies have found that nearly 3000 chemicals from food packaging materials can transfer into food, making human exposure to these chemicals highly likely. Other studies have even detected harmful substances, such as microplastics, in human blood.
In contrast, glass and ceramics have been found to be the safest food contact materials due to their non-toxic composition and inertness.
such as those of the International Standardization Organization (ISO) for Food Safety Management.
The ISO standard is a global standard that applies to all organisations in the food industry, regardless of size or industry. It establishes food control requirements that ensure products are safe for consumption.
The success of a circular economy depends on a market for recycled materials that should be competitive in terms of cost, quality and safety, compared to virgin materials.
However, the circular economy shouldn’t come at the expense of human health or the environment. Re-introducing waste materials into the production process can increase the risk of product contamination and lead to the release of harmful chemicals into the environment. The food packaging industry must ensure that materials recycled into food packaging meet all safety requirements and don’t pose risks to the people’s health or the environment.
Glass is an inert and robust packaging material that never loses its safety properties, no matter how many times it’s recycled.
While the glass packaging industry welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the development of a simplified environmental impact tool, measures such as human health and preservation of taste preservation shouldn’t be overlooked. These are just two of the areas that haven’t been adequately addressed in this methodology and are critical to making sustainable and informed product decisions.
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Glass is made from natural ingredients – making it best for preserving taste and quality. As a tasteless and odourless material with no chemical interaction, glass prevents the transfer.
