DEAS 932: 2018
ICS 55.120
 
© EAC 2018                                                                                                                              First Edition 2018 
 DRAFT EAST AFRICAN STANDARD 
Paper plates and cups for foo d packaging — Spe cification 
EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY DEAS 932: 2018 
ii © EAC 2018 – All rights reserved
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Violators may be prosecuted. DEAS 932: 2018 
© EAC 2018 – All rights reserved  iii
 Foreword 
Development of the East African Standards has been necessitated  by the need for harmonizing requirements 
governing quality of products and services in the East African Community. It is envisaged that through 
harmonized standardization, trade barriers that are encountered  when goods and services are exchanged 
within the Community will be removed.  
The Community has established an East African Standards Committ ee (EASC) mandated to develop and 
issue East African Standards (EAS).  The Committee is composed of representatives of the National 
Standards Bodies in Partner States, together with the represent atives from the public and private sector 
organizations in the community.  
East African Standards are developed through Technical Committe es that are representative of key 
stakeholders including government, academia, consumer groups, p rivate sector and other interested parties. 
Draft East African Standards are circulated to stakeholders thr ough the National Standards Bodies in the 
Partner States. The comments received are discussed and incorpo rated before finalization of standards, in 
accordance with the Principles and procedures for development o f East African Standards.  
East African Standards are subject to review, to keep pace with  technological advances. Users of the East 
African Standards are therefore expected to ensure that they al ways have the latest versions of the standards 
they are implementing .  
The committee responsible for this document is Technical Commit tee EASC/TC 066, Packaging . 
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements  of this document may be subject of patent 
rights. EAC shall not be held responsible for identifying any o r all such patent rights. 
During the preparation of this Standard, reference was made to the following document: 
IS 3263, Specification for Ice cream Cups and lids  
Acknowledgment is hereby made for the assistance derived from t his source. 
 DRAFT EAST AFRICAN S TANDARD DEAS 932: 2018
 
© EAC 2018 – All rights reserved 1
 Paper plates and cups for food  packaging — Specification 
1 Scope 
This Draft East African Standard specifies the requirements, me thods of sampling and test for paper plates 
and cups with or without lids used for food packaging. 
2 Normative references 
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a w ay that some or all of their content constitutes 
requirements of this document. For dated references, only the e dition cited applies. For undated references, 
the latest edition of the refer enced document (including any am endments) applies. 
EAS 880, Waxed paper for packaging of confectionery — Specification  
ISO 287, Paper and board — Determination of moisture content of a lot — Oven-drying method  
ISO 536, Paper and board — Determination of grammage  
ISO 5628, Paper and board -- Determination of bending stiffness -- General principles for two-point, three-
point and four-point methods  
ISO 13302, Sensory analysis -- Methods for assessing modifications to the flavour of foodstuffs due to 
packaging  
ISO 216, Writing paper and certain classes of printed matter — Trimmed sizes — A and B series, and 
indication of machine direction  
ISO 8784-1, Pulp, paper and board — Microbiological examination — Part 1: Total count of bacteria, yeast, 
mould based on disintegration  
ISO 13914, Soil quality — Determination of dioxins and furans and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls by 
gas chromatography with high-resolution mass selective detection (GC/HRMS)  
ISO 2758:2014, Paper — Determination of bursting strength  
ISO 21067, Packaging — Vocabulary  
ISO 4046-5, Paper, board, pulps and related terms — Vocabulary — Part 5: Properties of pulp, paper and 
board  
ISO 4046-4, Paper, board, pulps and related terms — Vocabulary — Part 4: Paper and board grades and 
converted products   
2 © EAC 2018 – All rights reserved
 2 Terms and definition 
2.1 
Lids 
XXX 
2.2 
Wax 
XXX 
2.3 
Machine Direction (MD) 
XXX 
2.4 
Cross Direction (CD) 
XXX 
3 Requirements 
3.1 General requirements 
Paper plates and cups shall: 
a) be made from virgin, chemical wood pulp, blended or recycled , 
b) not have Ingredients harmful to human health, and c) be free from defects including  but not limited to holes and unprocessed wood fibre. 
3.2 Specific requirements 
Paper plates and cups shall comply with specific requirements g iven in Table 1. 
Table 1 — Physical requirements of used for paper plates and cu ps used for food packaging 
S/N Characteristic Requirement Test method 
i.  Grammage, gsm, min 133 ISO 536 
ii.  Stiffness of the paper, g cm, min MD 110 
ISO 5628 
CD 40 
iii.  For waxed plate, cups, Paraffin wax and its 
blends, melting point, °C, min. 60 Annex A 
iv.  For waxed plate, 
cups, Wax content, 
%, mass, min. Grade 1 20 
EAS 880 Grade 2 40 
v.  Burst factor, kPa, min. 20 ISO 2758 
vi.  Water vapour permeability, when tested for 
24 h at 38 °C ± 1 °C and 90 % ± 2 % RH, 
g/m3, max. 140 ISO 16532-1 
vii.  Odour -a I S O  1 3 3 0 2   
© EAC 2018 – All rights reserved  3
 viii.  Dimension(Diameter of plate), mm -b I S O  2 1 6  
ix.  Volume of the cups -c 
a Shall not Impart off flavor on the product being packaged 
b As per the declaration with a tolerance of ±1 
c Within the tolerance of dimension  declared in accordance to I SO 216 
 
3.3 The heavy metal and organic pollutants requirements 
The heavy metal contaminants and organic pollutants if present shall not exceed the limits stated in Table 2. 
Table 2 — Limits of heavy metal and organic pollutants of paper  plates and cups for food packaging 
S/N Contaminant Maximum limits
mg/kg Test method 
i. Cadmium (Cd2+) 0 . 5  
EAS 880 ii. Chromium Cr6+ 0 . 0 5  
iii. Lead (Pb2+) 3 . 0  
iv. Mercury (Hg2+) 0.3 
v. Pentachlorophenol (PCP) 0.05 
vi. Polychlorinated biphenyl 2.0 
 
3.4 Resistance to deep freezing for paper plates and cups with lids 
When tested in accordance with Annex B the products shall withs tand the deep freeze conditions for 30 days. 
3.5 Microbiological requirements 
Paper plates and cups  shall comply with microbiologica l requirements given in Table 3 . 
Table 3 — Microbiological limits for paper plates and cups 
S/N Characteristic Limit Test method 
i. Total plate count, cfu/m, max. 300 
ISO 8784-1 ii. Pseudomonas aeruginosa , cfu/g 
Not detected in 1 
g of the product iii. Staphylococcus aureus , cfu/g 
iv. Candida albicans , cfu/g 
v. Escherichia coli , cfu/g 
 
3.6 Leak proofness 
When tested in accordance with Annex C, the paper paper plates and cups shall be leak proof. There shall be 
no cracks on the outer curling of the paper paper plates and cu ps and the base curling shall be uniform. Glue 
spots shall be absent where the paper paper plates and cups are  seamed.  
4 © EAC 2018 – All rights reserved
 4 Packaging 
Paper plates and cups shall be packed in suitable materials tha t prevent them from contamination and 
damage during normal handling, storage and transportation. 
5 Labelling 
5.1 Paper plates and cups shall be legibly and indelibly labelled w ith batch number and 
manufactures/suppliers name or trade mark or both at the bottom  
5.2 Paper plates and cups shall be legibly and indelibly marked wi th the following information: 
a) manufactures/suppliers name or trade mark or both; b) words, “made from virgin pulp, blended and recycled”; c) month and year of manufacture; 
d) the volume of the cups with lids; 
e) number of pieces; 
f) dimension in millimetres; and g) country of origin/manufacture.  
© EAC 2018 – All rights reserved  5
 Annex A 
(normative) 
 
Determination of melting point of wax 
A.1 Apparatus 
A.1.1 Thermometer - Accuracy of 0.1 ºC and graduated at every 0.1 ºC 
A.1.2 Test tube  - With centrally bored cork for insertion of the thermometer. The cork shall have slit to 
permit circulation of air  
A.1.3 Water bath  - With a thermometer  
A.2 Procedure 
Melt the sample of wax by warming it in a water bath at a tempe rature just sufficient to melt it. Dip the 
thermometer and withdraw, so as to get the bulb thinly coated w ith the wax. Let it cool . Insert this thermometer 
into the test tube through the bored cork and then place the te st tube in the water bath. Raise the temperature 
gradually, at the rate of 1ºC in 3 minutes. Note the temperature, accurately to 0.1 ºC at which a transparent 
drop forms on the bottom of the thermometer bulb. Record this t emperature as the melting point of the wax   
6 © EAC 2018 – All rights reserved
 Annex B 
(normative) 
 
Resistance to deep freezing 
B.1 Apparatus 
Freezing compartment that can be operated up -40 ºC 
B.2 Materials 
Paper plates and cups 
B.2 Procedure 
B.2.1  Sample paper plates and cups are placed in a freezing compartm ent that operates up to -35 ºC for a 
period of 30 days. 
B.2.2 At the end of this period the samples are removed from the comp artment and observed for any 
defects such separation of the seam, fading of the prints, defo rmation etc. 
B.3 Conclusion 
The sample is shall comply if no defects mentioned in B.2 are o bserved.  
© EAC 2018 – All rights reserved  7
 Annex C 
(normative) 
 
Leak proofness 
C.1 Apparatus 
Paper plates, cups with lids  
C.2 Reagents 
Water 
C.3 Procedure 
The sample paper plates, cups with lids shall be filled with wa ter and checked after 5 minutes for any leakage. 
The paper plates, cups with lids shall have complied with requi rement if no leakage is observed.  
8 © EAC 2018 – All rights reserved
 Bibliography 
KS 2799, Paper plates and cups for food packaging — Specification 
 DEAS 932: 2018 
© EAC 2018  – All rights reserved