EFSA issues positive Scientific Opinion to Kreyenborg for the decontamination of rPET flakes
At the end of May 2025, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) issued a so-called positive Scientific Opinion to Kreyenborg, a plant manufacturer specialising in process technology for bulk materials in the plastics and food sectors, for its infrared technology “IR-Clean.” This technology enables the decontamination of recycled PET flakes, which can then be reused in food packaging that comes into contact with all types of food.
With this EFSA approval, Kreyenborg’s IR-Clean system has been assigned a unique Recycling Authorisation Number (RAN) and listed in a public register. According to the mechanical engineering company Kreyenborg, several IR-Clean processes had already been individually positively assessed by customers under the old Regulation (EC) 282/2008. The approval process, the company notes, is now significantly shorter and simpler under the new Regulation (EU) 2022/1616, both for Kreyenborg and for its customers in the packaging industry.
EFSA’s expert panel concluded – after evaluating data from a so-called “challenge test” – that the recycled PET produced by the IR-Clean process poses no safety concerns and can therefore be used again in packaging intended for direct contact with food. The conditions for this are:
A) Up to 100% of the recycled PET flakes can be used to manufacture materials and articles intended to come into contact with all types of food and to be stored at room temperature or below.
B) The input material must consist of washed and dried post-consumer PET flakes, sourced from packaging produced according to EU regulations for food-contact materials, and must contain no more than 5% PET from non-food consumer applications.
C) The process must be run under conditions at least as stringent as those used in the EFSA-evaluated challenge tests for decontamination.
Two-step decontamination
In the EFSA-reviewed Kreyenborg process, two main steps were evaluated: the decontamination of PET flakes in an infrared dryer (IRD), followed by treatment in a finishing unit.
“These two steps were assessed as crucial for the efficiency of the decontamination process using our system,” says Marcus Vogt, Technical Sales Manager for the plastics sector, referencing the extensive testing carried out during various challenge tests that preceded EFSA’s opinion over a long period. Vogt helped initiate the petition and has overseen the approval process for more than six years, which, alongside EU standards, also includes various approvals under U.S. FDA regulations.