The obligations in terms of Food Contact Materials (FCM) have become a real nightmare for professionals of the agri food industry. As a matter of fact, in Europe, FCMs are governed by Framework Regulation (EC) No. 1935/2004, but specific measures applicable to certain groups of materials have been and are regularly developed at European level. In addition, there may be national measures maintained or implemented to cover groups of materials for which there are no European laws (non harmonised field). As a supplier of a wide range of materials, GEA France must be in a position to accurately inform any company wishing to make sure that their equipment complies with the regulations in force in terms of food compatibility. “Our customers need to be able to substantiate, at any time, the regulatory compliance of their equipment (cutting or packaging machines, food processing ovens, deep fryers) and their spare parts, such as the elastomer seals which can be in contact with food”, explains Franck Delbart, Quality, Health, Safety and Environment (QHSE) Manager for GEA France. “We asked Cetim to give us a specific training in regulatory compli-ance, with particular focus on our equipment and the particular needs of our custo-mers, so that we could answer to our customers’ questions in a professional manner, irrespective of the date of design of the equipment, i.e. before or after Regulation (EC) No. 1935/2004.”
Flawless availability
As a result, a one-day training course was designed in collaboration with GEA France to meet the needs of a vast audience comprised of designers or quality and commercial managers. “With this training course, given by Cetim’s experts who know the reality of the field, we improved our skills regarding the help we can provide to our customers regarding the compliance of their processes and equipment”, continues Franck Delbart. “It also allowed us to imple-ment a direct relationship with Cetim’s experts, who are always kind and available to answer our questions.”
