Minutes of the FCMJEG 27th August 2025 meeting

Joint Expert Group on Food Contact Materials (FCMJEG) 

Meeting of the FCMJEG at 10:00 on 27^th August 2025 Virtual via Microsoft Teams

Public Minutes  

Present

Item 1: Welcome and Apologies    

1. The Chair welcomed all attendees to the meeting. A welcome was extended to Josephine Walker who has joined the Secretariat support team. Apologies were received from Mr Allan Shivembe Mr Vincent Greenwood of the FSA policy directorate.

Item 2: Declaration(s) of Interest  

1. The Chair reminded those attending the meeting to declare any commercial or other interests they might have for any of the agenda items. It is necessary to declare interests, as per the Code of Practice for Scientific Advisory Committees (SAC) and Councils (CoPSAC, 2021). Members should ask themselves whether the public would reasonably consider that the interest in question might influence them (and thus their perceived independence).
2. Dr Emma Bradley declared a personal specific interest for Item 7 on the agenda, whereby her employer was the contract research organisation (CRO) that completed analytical testing for the Applicant. Due to her position, she reviewed the studies as part of quality assurance. She was therefore excluded from the discussions.
3. Dr Malcolm Driffield declared a personal specific interest for Item 7 on the agenda, whereby his employer was the contract research organisation (CRO) who worked with the Applicant initially in their development process. He was therefore excluded from the FCMJEG’s discussions.

Item 3: Matters arising  

4. The dossier update table with the overall progress of all FCM dossiers was presented to the FCMJEG Members. A more detailed update on several dossiers/applications were given by the Secretariat.

Item 4: Minutes of the last meeting – 28^th May 2025

5. The FCMJEG suggested minor editorial changes. Following these changes, the minutes were accepted as an accurate representation of the meeting held on the 28^th of May 2025.

Item 5: Plastic Recycling Competent Authority Audit: Review of a Novel Recycling Technology Application

6. The FCMJEG reviewed the cover paper drafted by the Secretariat that summarised the data and information provided by the Applicant. This document was to aid the discussion on the suitability of the information provided in the application dossier submitted to the FSA (acting as the competent authority) by the Applicant.
7. Comments were received from the Group which highlighted areas where additional information would be needed. Secretariat agreed to add these points to a Request for Information letter (RFI) to be sent to the Applicant based on the Group’s discussions when the application becomes a priority.

Item 6: Review of the additional information for a plastic additive application: Chopped Carbon Fibre (RP2147)

8. The Group reviewed the Committee Advice Document prepared by the Secretariat for RP2147 (Chopped carbon fibre). The Group were satisfied that the document was a good summary of the application and suggested minor editorial changes to the document.
9. The Secretariat agreed to make the requested changes before the document would be finalised by correspondence.

Item 7: Review of the additional information for a polymer: Agar palmitate (RP2263)

10. The FCMJEG reviewed the response to a request for information (RFI) provided by the Applicant. The Group had one point which required clarification from the Applicant but were otherwise satisfied with the responses.

Any other business

11. The Group discussed drafting a new chair rota including the new members and the other responsibilities which the acting chair may need to fulfil.

Date of next meeting    

12. The next meeting will be held on the 1^st of October 2025. This will be a virtual meeting on Microsoft Teams.
13.  N.b. The meeting of the 1^st of October was cancelled due to insufficient agenda items.