. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/SPS/N/EEC/218
13 October 2003
(03-5392)
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Original:  English
NOTIFICATION
1. Member to Agreement notifying:   EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
If applicable, name of local government involved:
2. Agency responsible:   Commission of the European Communities. Health & Consumer
Protection Directorate-General  Directorate E – Food Safety: Plant Health, Animal Health
and Welfare, International questions
3. Products covered (provide tariff item number(s) as specified in national schedules
deposited with the WTO; ICS numbers should be provided in addition, where
applicable):  Materials and articles in contact with food including catering containers and
materials and articles in contact with drinking water covered by TARIC positions 3919,
3920, 3923 & 3924.  ICS number:  67.250
4. Regions or countries likely to be affected, to the extent relevant or practicable:
Member States of the European Communities (EEC) and third countries exporting the
products concerned to the EEC.
5. Title, language and number of pages of the notified document:   SANCO/2003/949  Draft
Commission Directive amending Directive 2002/72/EC relating to plastic materials andarticles intended to come into contact with foodstuffs (21 pages)
6. Description of content:  This proposal updates the list of monomers and additives used for
the manufacture of plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with
foodstuffs by including substances recently evaluated by the Scientific Committee on Food.
It also proposes some rules for additives used in plastics, which are also used as food
additives.  Finally it sets a deadline for the submission of data for the evaluation ofadditives not yet included in the community list,  in view of the establishment of a positive
list for additives.
7. Objective and rationale:  [  X ] food safety, [   ] animal health, [   ] plant protection,
[   ] protect humans from animal/plant pest or disease,  [   ]  protect territory from other
damage from pests:
8. International standard, gu ideline or recommendation:
[   ] Codex Alimentarius Commission, [   ] Office International des Epizooties,
[   ] International Plant Prot ection Convention, [ X ] None
If an international standard , guideline or recommendation exists, give the appropriate
reference and briefly identify deviations:
9. Relevant documents and language(s) in which these are available:  European
Commission Document SANCO/ 2003/949 (Available in all community languages). When
adopted it will be published at the Official Journal available at: http://europa.eu.int/eur-
lex/en/oj/index.htmlG/SPS/N/EEC/218
Page 2
10. Proposed date of adoption:   15 January 2004
11. Proposed date of entry into force:   15 January 2004
12. Final date for comments:  10 December 2003
Further to this date comments will be welcome at any time; they will be considered at the
occasion of a new modification of Directive 2002/72/EC relating to plastic materials and
articles intended to come into contact with foodstuffs.
Agency or authority designated to handle co mments:  [ X ] EC notification authority,
[   ] National enquiry point, or address, fax number and E-mail address (if available) of
other body:
13. Texts available from:  [   ] National notification authority, [ X ] EC enquiry point, or
address, fax number and E-mail address (if available) of other body:   F u r t h e r  t o
Document SANCO/2003/949, information releva nt to this proposal can be found in
• Opinions and minutes of the Scientific Committee for Food (SCF) at
http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/sc/scf/index_en.html .
• Websites of the EEC Joint Research Centre on Food Contact Materials at
http://cpf.jrc.it/webpack/ ; and
• DG Health and Consumer Protection at
http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/sfp/food_contact/index_en.html