[Updated] South Korea Details Requirements for Recycled Food Package Materials: Eco-Friendly Policy

Updates:

On December 9, 2022, the authority officially issued the revised Enforcement Rule of Food Sanitation Act, which enters into effect on December 11, 2022. 

South Korea established the legal ground to regulate the usage of recycled resources in manufacturing food packages on June 10¹. Soon after, on July 25, 2022, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) detailed the certificate requirements of recycled materials used for manufacturing food packages in the draft of Enforcement Rule of Food Sanitation Act², which helps optimize the supervision scheme of the recycled materials for food packages. The consultation period is set to end on September 4, 2022.

Following the last version of Food Sanitation Act³, if manufacturers intend to use recycled resources to produce food apparatus, containers, or packages, they need to apply for MFDS recognition. In the exposure draft, the authority further specified the detailed requirements.

The applicant shall submit an application letter to MFDS, together with the below documents:

1. Data of the raw materials to be recycled;

2. Data of the recycling method, recycling process, and analysis and evaluation of the recycling processes;

3. Data of removing the contaminants during the recycling process;

4. Other data required by the authority to assist the authority in evaluating the recycled resources.

After reviewing the application documents, MFDS will determine whether the recycled resource complies with the sanitation standards and issue a certificate (as shown below) of the qualified resources.

(Certificate of recycled resource for manufacturing food apparatus, containers, and packages) 

If the draft is passed, the provisions of recycled resources for food packages will be implemented along with the Food Sanitation Act³, on December 11, 2022.