On 8 June 2016, Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) published Notice No. 245 to approve adding new requirements for food utensils, containers and packaging made mainly of Polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) under the Food Sanitation Law. The new requirement will be effective for food contact articles made of PEN manufactured or imported after 8 December 2016.
In addition to existing requirements for general food contact articles made of plastic are the below:
| Test Items | Limit |
| Total cadmium content | ≤ 100 ug/g |
| Total lead content | ≤ 100 ug/g |
| Migration of heavy metals (as lead) | ≤ 1 ug/ml |
| Consumption of potassium permanganate | ≤ 10 ug/ml |
The new requirements for food contact articles made of PEN are below:
| Test Items | Limit |
| Evaporation residue | ≤ 30 ug/ml |
| Specific migration of germanium | ≤ 0.1 ug/ml |
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