EDQM Publishes Technical Guideline for Food Contact Cork Materials

SafeGuardSHardgoodsSep 11, 2025

SG 135/25

The European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & Healthcare (EDQM) has issued a technical guide for food contact cork materials and articles.

The EDQM has recently issued the first edition of its technical guide, ‘Cork Materials and Articles for Contact with Food – A technical guide for manufacturers and regulators’. This document supplements Council of Europe Resolution CM/Res(2020) 9 on the safety and quality of materials and articles for contact with food (the Resolution) and supersedes the Council of Europe’s policy statement concerning cork stoppers and other cork materials and articles intended to come into contact with foodstuffs (version 2, 2007).

Highlights of the technical guideline are summarized in Table 1.

Section to technical guide for food contact cork materials and articles	Highlight
1 ‘Scope and definitions’	Applies to food contact cork materials and articles Defines ‘cork’ as a protective layer of bark, which periodically can be harvested from the trunk and branches of the cork oak (Quercus suber L.), constituting the raw material for cork products (ISO 633:2019) Indicates several applications where cork is as a food contact material including, but not limited to, cork stoppers, trays, placemats and fruit bowls Excludes materials other than cork, including: Bar top cork stoppers made of a different material such as glass, metal, wood or plastic Organic or inorganic coatings, paraffin waxes or silicones on the surface of cork materials and articles Requires the excluded materials above to comply with applicable national or European legislation, or with the corresponding technical guide of the Resolution
2. Specific requirements	Requires food contact cork materials to comply with the general safety requirements in the Resolution, as well as the list of evaluated substances and their corresponding specifications in the annex of the technical guide
3. Compliance testing	Directs the use of testing conditions and methods in section 4 of the guide for verification of compliance
4 ‘Test conditions and methods for analysis for cork materials and articles.	Instructs the use of testing conditions and simulants in Regulation (EU) No. 10/2011 on food contact plastics (current consolidated version to March 2025) and ‘Testing conditions for kitchenware articles in contact with foodstuffs: plastics, metals, silicone & rubber, paper & board’ by the European Commission’s Joint Research Center (JRC): The specific migration value is expressed in mg/kg by considering Article 17 to Regulation (EU) No. 10/2011, if the intended use of the article is known, otherwise in mg/article if the intended use is unknown The overall migration (OM) value is expressed in mg/dm², if the intended use of the article is known, otherwise mg/article if the intended use is unknown Specifies the use of EN 1186-1:2002 and EN 1186-3:2022 for the determination of OM, as well as ISO 10106:2021 for OM from cork stoppers Directs the use of established limit values in section 3.3 of the appendix to the Resolution Follows Article 18 of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 for rules for assessing compliance with migration limits

Table 1

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