식품접촉재료의 규제의 현황과 개선방안 - 플라스틱 재료를 중심으로 -

초록

On its way from farm to fork, our food comes into contact with many different materials and products. While these materials are essential to transport, preserve, and ultimately consume our food, they may also negatively impact the quality and safety of foodstuffs. Chemicals present in food contact materials (FCM) are known to migrate into, and thus contaminate foodstuff, thereby potentially creating risks for consumer health. Existing legislation is meant to safeguard consumers against such risks; however, the current rules are deficient and provide insufficient protection of consumers. Korea has so far regulated food contact materials in a negative way. This means that all substances can be used as food contact materials, but only those that have safety problems are restricted. In the case of new materials, the system has a problem that cannot be regulated immediately, even if there is a risk. In addition, dangerous substances prohibited from being used overseas shall not be regulated immediately until their use is restricted by standards and standards based on the Food Sanitation Act. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce a positive list system. The system allows only substances registered on the list to be used as food contact materials after listing materials that can be used as food contact materials. Such a system has recently been widely introduced in the international community as well. There are various kinds of food contact materials. The first question is what to target the positive list. Considering that synthetic resins are widely used in food apparatus, containers and packages, and that there are many countries targeting synthetic resins, synthetic resins should be subject to them first. In this case, the materials that make up the apparatus, containers and packages are basic polymers and additives added to them, so they should be listed and managed. When introducing a positive list system, it is important to establish an information delivery system between operators, as in the EU. The system should ensure that apparatus, containers and packages, and their raw materials are suitable for the positive list system. It will also be necessary to establish new manufacturing and management standards for food apparatus, containers and packages. On the other hand, the materials of other food apparatus, containers and packages such as paper or rubber, should be continuously reviewed for positive listings, taking into account the degree of risk and international trends.

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