What EU 2020/1245 compliance means for foodservice procurement

Food contact compliance is a procurement risk before it is a laboratory question. This guide sets out what Regulation (EU) 2020/1245 requires, the three-cycle test and the no-increase rule that decide compliance, what a Declaration of Compliance must contain, and how to tell a current-compliant document from one that no longer holds.

Why food contact compliance is a procurement risk, not a lab footnote

When a tableware specification enters a foodservice estate, the food contact compliance file enters with it. That file is what an enforcement authority, an auditor, or a client’s own ESG and food safety team asks for first. If the documentation is incomplete or out of date, the exposure sits with the operator who specified the item, not with the manufacturer who supplied it.

For reusable tableware the stakes are higher than for single-use packaging, because the same article meets food many times across its service life under heat, acid, and repeated washing. The question a compliance file has to answer is not whether the material is safe on first contact. It is whether the material stays safe across the conditions it will actually see in service. Regulation (EU) 2020/1245 is the instrument that turns that question into a defined test, and the rest of this guide is about reading the resulting documents correctly.

What Regulation (EU) 2020/1245 actually is

Regulation (EU) 2020/1245 is the 15th amendment to Commission Regulation (EU) No 10/2011, the EU framework governing plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with food. It was published in September 2020 and entered into force on 23 September 2020.

Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 is the parent text. It sets the Union list of authorised substances, the overall migration limit, and the specific migration limits for individual substances. The 15th amendment did several things, including adding and revising authorised substances, but the change that matters most to procurement is the clarification of how repeat-use articles are tested for migration. That clarification is where the compliance bar for reusable tableware moved.

15TH AMENDMENT TO REG (EU) NO 10/2011 · IN FORCE 23 SEP 2020 · 3 SUBSEQUENT MIGRATION TESTS · COMPLIANCE ON 3RD CYCLE · OML 10 MG/DM² · SGS-VERIFIED

The three-cycle migration test, and the rule that catches most suppliers

Migration is the transfer of substances from a material into food. The regulation controls it two ways. The overall migration limit caps the total mass of constituents released at 10 milligrams per square decimetre of food contact surface. Specific migration limits cap named substances individually; for melamine the specific migration limit is 2.5 mg/kg of food, and for formaldehyde it is 15 mg/kg.

For articles intended for repeated use, the regulation requires migration to be measured across three subsequent specific migration tests carried out on the same sample, and compliance is assessed on the result of the third test. The logic is that a reusable article is washed and reused many times, so the relevant figure is how it behaves after repeated contact, not on day one.

Here is the rule that decides most cases. Compliance cannot be established if migration increases from the first test to the third, even where no single test exceeds the specific migration limit. A rising trend across the three cycles is read as insufficient material stability, and the material fails on that basis alone. TÜV SÜD, SGS, and Eurofins all state this in their guidance on the 15th amendment. The practical consequence for buyers is that a low single reading proves nothing about stability. The shape of the result across three cycles is what compliance turns on.

Food simulants and contact conditions: what gets tested, and how

Migration is not measured into real food. It is measured into food simulants, standardised test liquids that stand in for food types under Annex III of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011. Simulants A (10% ethanol), B (3% acetic acid), and C (20% ethanol) represent foods of hydrophilic character; simulant B in particular represents acidic foods. Simulants D1 (50% ethanol) and D2 (vegetable oil) represent fatty, lipophilic foods. Simulant E (a synthetic polymer, Tenax) represents dry foods. For an article intended for contact with all food types, testing against simulants A, B, and D2 is the standard route to cover the full range.

Each test is run under contact conditions, the time and temperature, chosen to represent the worst foreseeable use of the article. Where the contact temperature exceeds 100°C, additional testing arrangements apply. A compliance document is only meaningful read against the conditions it was tested under. A result generated at low temperature and short contact does not support a use case involving heat and prolonged contact, which is why the conditions of use have to be stated and matched to the real service model.

What a Declaration of Compliance must contain

The Declaration of Compliance is the document that travels with a plastic food contact material at every stage of production and marketing, excluding the retail stage. Its required contents are set out in Annex IV of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011. A complete Declaration of Compliance states:

The identity and address of the business operator issuing the declaration, and of the manufacturer or importer of the material.

The identity of the materials, articles, or substances to which it applies.

Confirmation that the material meets the relevant requirements of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 and the Framework Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004.

Adequate information on substances subject to restriction, including the relevant specific migration results where applicable.

Information on dual-use additives, substances also permitted as food additives, so that downstream users can account for them.

The specifications on the use of the material: the food types it is suitable for, the contact time, and the contact temperature.

The declaration has to be supported by underlying documentation, the migration test reports and analytical results that substantiate it. A declaration without that supporting evidence available on request is not audit-grade.

Why a single-cycle test certificate is not a compliant document

A common gap in supplier documentation is a migration certificate that reports a single test result. For single-use items that can be appropriate. For reusable tableware it is not, because it cannot demonstrate the one thing the regulation now requires for repeat-use articles: that migration does not increase across three subsequent cycles.

A single reading shows a snapshot. It cannot show a trend. Two suppliers can both report a first-cycle result under the specific migration limit, and only the three-cycle data reveals that one of them rises toward or past the limit on reuse while the other holds steady. Under Regulation (EU) 2020/1245 the first supplier is non-compliant and the second is compliant, and a single-cycle certificate would have hidden the difference. A supplier offering a single-cycle test for a reusable article is offering a document that does not match the current standard. The procurement response is to require all three cycles, or treat the file as incomplete.

Compliance file checklist: what to require from any tableware supplier

The table below sets out what a procurement file should contain to be defensible under Regulation (EU) 2020/1245, and the common shortfall to reject.

Fourier ships this documentation as a single compliance pack. See the resources index for the current Declaration of Compliance, migration test references, and specification sheets.

Where sits against EU 2020/1245

Fourier is a bio-composite tableware system developed by Creative Hospitality Design & Manufacturing Ltd, a UK manufacturer with over fifteen years in professional foodservice. It is engineered for the operational and regulatory reality foodservice procurement faces now: reusable service under heat, acid, and repeated commercial washing, with a documentation file that has to satisfy audit, client ESG reporting, and food contact compliance in one pack.

Fourier is EU 2020/1245 compliant across all three migration cycles, with SGS-verified composition. The compliance position is built on the part of the regulation that decides most cases: migration verified across three subsequent tests, not a single snapshot. The full compliance documentation ships audit-ready with every order, structured for direct attachment to foodservice and healthcare procurement tenders, and the same material is FDA compliant for US food contact, so a single-supplier specification can hold across UK, EU, and US estates without splitting the file by region.

The material is built from 70%+ reclaimed marine bio-minerals, derived from oyster shell waste streams, plus GRS-certified recycled polymers, with the composition SGS-verified rather than self-declared. It is formaldehyde-free, microwave safe, heat-safe to 180°C steam and combi cycles, and rated for 2,000+ commercial wash cycles. The material specification sets out the full composition profile. Porcelain retains the advantage above 180°C and for dry-oven service; for that service step it remains correct. For reusable service inside the thermal and wash envelope above, Fourier is the consolidated, documented specification.

We ship the Declaration of Compliance and the underlying migration references with every order. Request the compliance pack for evaluation against a live tender.