Labelling Recommendations

Media & Info

Icon for labelling products made of uncoated aluminium intended for contact with foodstuffs

Absence of harmonised European legislation for metals in contact with food and where no national legislation is in place (e.g. Italian DM 76 of 18 April 2007), the Council of Europe (CoE) Resolution CM/Res(2013)9 “Metals and alloys used in food contact materials and articles” may serve as a reference for compliance with the requirements of Framework In the Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004.

Labelling recommendations

In its resolution, the CoE formulated the following recommendations for labelling:

  • “Storage of acidic (e.g. fruit juices), alkaline (e.g. lye dough products) or salty, liquid foodstuffs in uncoated aluminium utensils should be limited in order to minimize release.
  • The producer should provide specific labelling of uncoated aluminium for users. With regard to retail packs, the suppliers must ensure that these are labelled with appropriate information for the end consumer. Examples of such labels could be: “User information: do not use this utensil for storage and processing of acidic, alkaline or salty food” or “To be used for storing food in refrigerator only”.
  • Guidance should be available from producers of uncoated aluminium utensils regarding the use of their product with strongly acidic, alkaline or salty foodstuffs.”

Currently, the labelling of uncoated aluminium products intended for contact with foodstuffs very much depends on the brand or private label owner and differs widely across Europe and beyond. Therefore, the manufacturers of aluminium household foil and aluminium foil containers organized in the European Aluminium Foil Association (EAFA) decided to harmonize the labelling as described in these recommendations. The objectives of a widely used, harmonised labelling are:

  • Proper and harmonised information about the safe use of uncoated aluminium products with foodstuffs
  • Recognition by the end-consumers by keeping it simple without frightening the consumer
  • The potential to have several languages on one pack

Downloads

These guidelines explain how to use a newly developed icon in combination with the text in various different European languages. These include language specific examples of salty and acidic foods