FDA approves Coperion recycled HDPE and PP for food-grade applications

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has confirmed that high-density PE (HDPE) and PP recycled with Coperion’s twin screw extruders and EcoFresh silo degassing are suitable for direct food contact packaging. 

Coperion, a global compounding and extrusion expert based in Stuttgart, Germany, says it is the first provider of complete decontamination systems featuring twin screw extruders and EcoFresh silo degassing to commercialize a solution for food-grade recyclates. 

“The FDA’s letter of no objection (LNO) means that recycled HDPE (rHDPE) and recycled PP (rPP) manufactured with our technologies can be used for new food packaging in proportions up to 100%,” comments Stefan Lachenmayer, global commercial director of recycling at Coperion. 

“As a result, we provide recyclers the assurance that our energy-efficient mechanical recycling process manufactures high-quality recyclate for use cases A–H. These include, for example, packaging for high-temperature, heat-sterilized, pasteurized, or frozen products.”

The LNO creates new possibilities for the recycling of food packaging, such as the production of food-grade regranulate from HDPE milk jugs or fruit juice bottles and its reuse for similar bottles and related products, the company outlines.

Food containers, cups, bowls, and trays from PP can also be recycled into new packaging for direct contact with food, according to the systems provider.

Food-safe recyclate 

Coperion asserts that manufacturing food-safe recyclates is one of the most significant challenges in plastics recycling. This is said to be the case because regranulates must be certified as suitable for direct contact with food and to fulfill the highest requirements for purity and safety.

The company says it achieves its high decontamination performance with its co-rotating twin screw extruder’s high degassing function and its EcoFresh silo degassing system, where low residence times are described as being enough to remove low-volatility migratory substances.

For its food-safe rHDPE recyclate, Coperion uses raw material from beverage bottles and their caps. For rPP compounds, the company uses packaging such as vegetable trays and yogurt containers.

The raw material is fed to the extruder with the Coperion K-Tron gravimetric feeders to be melted, mixed, homogenized, and degassed using twin screws. The plastic is then purified of solid foreign material with a melt filter and then pelletized. 

Next, the recompounds go through a second decontamination process in the EcoFresh silo degassing unit. 

Lachenmayer adds that Coperion’s integrated approach as a system provider is also the basis for the environmental credibility of its HDPE and PP recycling solutions for food-contact materials.

“We look at the entire process and apply our decontamination technologies at specific points in the process chain. It is their optimal interplay that makes the efficient achievement of the necessary level of decontamination possible.”

At the Coperion Recycling Innovation Center, recyclers can test the decontamination performance of the Coperion extruder and EcoFresh using original material streams. 

In related food-grade recycled plastic news, last year, the Prevented Ocean Plastic material became the first rPP to meet the EU’s food-safe standards. 

In Germany, Tomra Recycling hosted an event showcasing its sorting systems to boost food-grade rPP production. Meanwhile, Alpla established a Dutch recycling company to produce food-safe HDPE recyclate.

Also last year, Türkiye lifted its ban on recycled plastic in food contact materials.