NextLooPP, the pioneering project at the forefront of closing the loop on food-grade recycled polypropylene (rPP or FgrPP), has now completed a landmark study of background contamination of post-consumer PP packaging for its submissions to food safety authorities EFSA, FDA, and UK FSA.

This study by the NextLooPP project is the first recent comprehensive UK/European study on post -consumer PP packaging to be based on current recycling infrastructure and packaging materials. As such, it will update the knowledge base that has been used for other plastics including high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and PET. It will shine a brighter light on the science of risk management and recycling food-grade recycled PP and potentially other polyolefins.

This enables the NextLoop project and members to take a transformational approach to the stringent food safety requirements around food-contact recycled PP and further validates the approach of meshing highly effective sorting with powerful decontamination.

PP flake studies: 700 analyses from 17,500+ different pieces of packaging.

NextLooPP experts ran 700 headspace analyses by GC-MS — an analytical method that combines the features of gas-chromatography and mass spectrometry — to identify different substances within test samples taken from post-consumer washed PP flakes. These PP flakes were taken from over 17,500 different pieces of packaging and the large data set was screened through the statistical approach, Principal Component Analysis, on the chemometric data to identify outliers, along with comparing each peak found against the NIST mass spectral library.

The science-based findings herald a breakthrough for the future of recycling of post-consumer polyolefins. As well, it allows NextLooPP’s 47 members to better navigate the recent changes announced by the EU Commission regarding the new regulation (2022/1616) dealing with recycled plastics in direct food contact.

Having submitted its initial rPP dossier to the USFDA, NextLooPP is now poised to announce the launch of a new generation of fluorescent markers using renewable, inexpensive, and highly efficient materials.

You'll find more news about NextLooPP here at PlasticsToday.