Tetra Pak to phase out chemical from citrus juice packaging

The actions occur after Italian authorities confiscated millions of litres of Nestlé baby milk this week, and got a court order to force the company into recalling about two million litres of itsNidina and Latte Mio brands in Italy, France, Spain and Portugal.

Italy's food safety regulators detected ITX in some batches of the Nestlé products in September. The ink curing agent was found to have migrated through the packaging and into the milk. Thepackaging was produced by Sweden-based Tetra Pak.

Tetra Pak says it stopped using ITX in the packing for the affected Nestlé products in October after being informed of the problem. ITX is used in the curing process during ultraviolet printingprocesses. Tetra Pak has switched to using non UV inks for the products.

In an interview Tetra Pak spokeperson Patricia O'Hayer said in addition to stopping ITX use for the Nestlé products the company began reviewing its use of the curing agent throughout its packagingoperations after Italy discovered the problem.

ITX is not prohibited for use in food packaging by the EU, she said. It is also not listed on the World Health Organisation's prohibited list. Scientific research indicates that the migration ofITX has "no known health effects"​, O'Hayer said.

Tetra Pak's testing indicates that the migration of the chemical through the packaging occurs when the product inside is a fatty substance, like milk.

"There is a correlation between fat content and the likelihood of ITX migration,"​ she said.

Tetra Pak also uses the chemical for packaging for water, juices, ice teas. The additional testing revealed that no migration was occurring for most of those beverages, except in the case of somecitrus and milk juices. Clear juices such as as apple, grape and cranberry do not seem to be affected.

"The situation with some juices is more complex,"​ O'Hayer said. "All clear juices had no migration issues. However citrus juices such as orange and lemon might be affected.We found that the higher the citrus content the greater the possibility of migration. It seems to be a function of the recipe."​

The use of ITX for the affected products will be stopped by January 2006, she said. The company uses the ITX UV curing process for between one to two per cent of its packaging operations.

"We take this issue seriously,"​ O'Hayer said.

Italy had originally informed the European Commission rapid alert system about the ITX problem in September. However, regulators were unhappy that there was still some product left on the shelvesand under a court application got a Italian judge to demand the Nestlé recall.

The country also called on the European Commission for an inquiry into ITX. Yesterday the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the bloc's regulator, said it would undertake a risk assessment ofthe chemical.

"On the basis of the very limited data available today, the presence of ITX in food could be considered undesirable but it is not likely to present a health risk at the levelsreported,"​ EFSA stated in the announcement. The regulator said it will provide preliminary advice in the next two weeks and expects to deliver its final opinion no later than March 2006.

Nestlé denies there was a safety risk to human health and said the recall was due to consumer concern about the products. Nestlé cited what it calls a broad scientific consensus that supports itsconviction that ITX does not pose a health hazard.

The processing industry is under regulatory and consumer pressure to ensure better safety of their food products and the packaging. Health concerns about packaging chemicals, such asphthalates, have raised consumer awareness of about the risks posed by materials that may come into contact with the food they buy.

Nestlé also ran into difficulties with Italian regulators earlier in October. Italy's antitrust authority fined seven producers of baby formula, including Nestlé, a total of €9.7 million forprice fixing.