Safety Authorities of Germany have seized tonnes of couscous imported from Italy when they found chemical benzophenone leached from the packaging. Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety has detected higher levels of chemical in a total of 15,620 cartons of foodstuff.
Some of the retailers and wholesalers have withdrawn the products after the problem was discovered by official inspection, reported by Foodproduction daily.
Germany notified that levels of the chemical reaching 1559 µg/kg had been detected in the couscous imported from Italy, Benzophenone and 4-methylbenzophenone are used in food packaging as initiators for printing inks cured by UV radiation. Due to their volatility these chemicals can migrate through the packaging to the food if there is no functional barrier.
The European Commission’s Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health recommended that food contact materials printed with inks containing benzophenone or 4-MBP should not be brought in contact with foods unless the company could verify the migration into food was below 0.6 mg per kg food.