US FDA requirements for food contact packaging material compliance

Why Should You Attend:

Food safety concerns in the supply chain arte driving global requirements for good manufacturing practices (both legal and contractual) in the way packaging material suppliers manufacture and market their products. Packaging suppliers must be ready to address both procedural and material changes in their operations and food processors must know what retailers will require of them in the case of a food safety alert.

In this national climate of heightened awareness of food safety, more FDA inspections of food processing facilities is a certainty. During those inspections, processors are required to provide letters of continuing guarantee regarding the suitability of packaging materials used for their products. Both food processor and packaging material supplier must work together to provide valid letters.

The guarantees result from matching the composition and quality of the packaging materials used in the packaging to the food chemistry and use environment of the packaged products. This webinar will identify the components of a valid letter of guarantee for the food processor and the determinations that food packaging supplier must make in issuing the guarantees.

This training will emphasize on the immediate food contact layer of a package, but compliance requirements for other materials present will also be discussed. Plastic, metal, glass, and paper materials and coatings on them will be addressed. Decision rules for special applications, such as in-package microwave heating, will also be provided.

Areas Covered in the Seminar:

• Food processing facility inspections.
• Indirect food additive concept for US FDA compliance.
• Letters of continuing guarantee.
• Plastic, metal, glass, and paper packaging materials and coatings on them.
• Compliance based on composition and quality.
• Compliance based on special regulatory provisions.
• Compliance based on migration models or experimental studies.
• Status of materials with “Food Contact Notification” status.
• “New” condition of use categories for FDA certifications.
• Packaging for microwave use.
• Packaging material traceability.
• Product recall response.
• Third-party certification standards for packaging.
• “Food Grade” raw materials.
• Global regulatory trends influencing USFDA policy makers.

Learning objectives:

The webinar presents the legal requirements in the US to have a letters of guarantee for every food packaging material certifying that they comply with US FDA regulations. It outlines a food packaging user responsibilities for providing general information about the chemical nature and use context of his product. The process by which a food packaging producer can provide such a legal guarantee is described in detail.

Free handouts:

Attendees will get the below free handouts who attends the above webinar:

• Documenting self-determined  pre-market clearance finding for food packaging materials in the US
• Generic letter of continuing guarantee for food packaging materials in the US

Who Will Benefit:

• Personnel responsible for HACCP, food safety procedures, FDA compliance, product traceability and safety audits at food processing facilities
• Members of the Institute of Food Technologists and American Society for Quality involved in food safety and quality assurance
• Packaging engineers at companies using or supplying food packaging material

Instructor Profile:

Tom Dunn, has over thirty years experience in designing food packaging materials and operating food packaging facilities in compliance with local, state, Federal, and International safety regulations. He is past Chairman of the Flexible Packaging Association Technical Committee and the Flexible Packaging Groups of the Society of Plastics Engineers and the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper industry.

He was an active member of the UV/EB curing industry’s committee that submitted its Food Contact Notification Application to the US FDA.

His undergraduate and Master’s degrees are from Yale University.

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