India plans to allow recycled plastic for food packaging

What happened

India’s food safety regulator, FSSAI, has proposed changes to its 2018 packaging rules that would allow chemically recycled polyethylene and polypropylene in food packaging. The draft requires recycled plastic touching food to meet new plastic’s purity and safety standards; the proposal is not yet final.

Proposed

Global impact / market context

If approved, the rules could let food delivery platforms, consumer goods companies and packaging makers use recycled plastic while meeting mandatory recycling targets. That may expand demand for suitable recycled materials, but manufacturers would need to meet strict purity and safety requirements, potentially adding testing or processing costs.

Analyst inference

The article describes a regulatory hurdle that has held back recycled plastic in food packaging, and a proposal to permit two widely used plastic types through chemical recycling. The change would apply only if the draft rules are adopted and safety conditions are met.

Analyst inference

What to watch

1. Watch for the regulator’s next step on the draft amendments and whether the proposed rules are approved; the article does not give an approval date. Analyst inference
2. Check the final safety requirements for recycled plastic that touches food, including how manufacturers must demonstrate purity equal to new plastic under the stated standard. Analyst inference
3. Track whether the final rules retain the proposed permission for recycled polymers in outer layers of multi-layer packaging, a detail raised in the article. Analyst inference

Evidence

• Original source link unavailable