The EU Directive 2002/72/EC* regulates plastics intended to come into contact with foodstuffs. The principle of regulation is the establishment of a positive list, presently restricted to monomers and starting substances.

Currently, for additives an «incomplete list» exists because the harmonized evaluation of all additives is not yet finalized.

Only positive list substances may be used for manufacturing of food contact plastics.

The use of many substances is restricted by a so called Specific Migration Limit, SML, expressed as mg of a substance allowed to migrate from ANY PLASTIC into 1 kg of food, under its conditions of use. The law requires compliance with the SMLs for the end-use material or article in addition to the requirement of compliance with Overall Migration Limit, OML (=60 mg/kg food).

Directive 2002/72/EC (and its amendment 2004/19/EC) contain in their Annexes I -IV lists of evaluated monomers and additives and the corresponding SML values (if allotted).