Services: Electrical testing and certification, environmental or chemical testing

language
- English
- 中文

400-9269-886

NEWS CENTER

Industry News

Company News

Knowledge

East African Community releases draft standard for disposable plastic tableware

Time：

2026-02-02

The East African Community (EAC) has released a draft standard titled "Disposable Plastic Tableware - Specification" (DEAS 1307:2025), which establishes comprehensive technical specifications for disposable plastic tableware covering raw materials, physical properties, chemical safety, and labeling. The deadline for the evaluation of this standard is March 8, 2026.

On January 7, 2026, the East African Community (EAC) issued notifications G/TBT/N/BDI/703, G/TBT/N/KEN/1967, G/TBT/N/RWA/1333, G/TBT/N/TZA/1483, and G/TBT/N/UGA/2301 through the WTO, and released the draft East African standard "Disposable Plastic Tableware - Specification" (DEAS 1307:2025), which establishes comprehensive technical specifications for disposable plastic tableware covering raw materials, physical properties, chemical safety, and labeling. The deadline for the evaluation of this standard is March 8, 2026.

Main content

01. Raw materials and appearance

The raw materials for disposable plastic tableware must use food grade raw materials and must not contain toxic additives such as bisphenol A (BPA), lead, phthalates, etc.

Sensory and appearance requirements: no odor; The color is normal and uniform, without stains or obvious discoloration; The surface is smooth and clean, without defects such as cracks, grease, dust, mold, scratches, wrinkles, peeling, perforation, etc; Smooth and flat edges.

It should be able to resist damage or deformation caused by normal use.

02. Mechanical and Physical Properties

Drop performance: Free drop from a height of 0.8 meters onto a cement floor without cracks or delamination of the sample.

Temperature resistance: Tested in hot or hot oil at 100 ℃± 5 ℃, there shall be no deformation, peeling or wrinkling. Tableware that does not require heat resistance can be exempted from hot water testing.

Bending strength: Minimum bending strength limits have been set for different materials, such as polypropylene PP ≥ 25MPa, polystyrene PS ≥ 40MPa, ABS ≥ 60MPa.

Fork tooth stiffness: The fracture force of the fork teeth of a dining fork must be greater than 10 Newtons (N).

Microwave safety: Products claimed to be suitable for microwave ovens must not produce electrical sparks, defects, odors, or abnormalities during testing under specific conditions.

03. Health and Chemical Safety

Microbial limit: The total aerobic microbial count of each utensil shall not exceed 10 CFU (colony forming units).

Total migration amount: The total chemical components transferred to food or food simulants shall not exceed 10mg/dm ². Appendix D of the standard specifies in detail the selection of simulants, testing conditions (time temperature), and complex testing procedures for different types of food.

Color transfer: After the color of the colored tableware is transferred to the simulated object, it should not be noticeable to the naked eye. Even if the chemical migration meets the standard, obvious color migration can still lead to product failure.

04. Packaging and labeling

Packaging: Food grade materials must be used to ensure hygiene, contamination prevention, tamper resistance, and maintain product integrity during transportation and storage.

Label: The product name, manufacturer information, address, resin identification code (according to EAS 1086), instructions for use and disposal, quantity, batch number, production year and month, and suitability for microwave ovens should be clearly labeled on the packaging.

Single item identification: Each utensil must be clearly and irreversibly labeled with a resin identification code.

05. Compliance determination rules

Appendix E of the standard specifies a detailed plan for determining the sampling quantity and acceptable defect quantity based on batch size, such as batch ≤ 300 pieces, sampling 9 pieces, and allowing 1 defect.

Compliance advice

Given the comprehensive and high requirements of the disposable plastic tableware standards issued by the East African Community, relevant export enterprises should immediately initiate compliance response work, strictly analyze the compliance gap of existing products in accordance with the draft terms, focus on total migration and microbial indicators, strengthen the qualification assessment of raw material suppliers and hygiene control in the production process, and affix permanent resin labels that comply with EAS 1086 on each product according to regulations. If necessary, qualified third-party laboratories can be contacted for pre testing to ensure that the chemical safety, hygiene, and labeling of the products meet the standards, in order to avoid potential trade risks in the future.

Jiayu Testing, as a professional third-party testing and certification service organization, has qualifications such as CMA, CNAS, CPSC, and has obtained laboratory accreditation from multiple authoritative certification agencies at home and abroad. It has a professional testing technology team, equipped with advanced instruments and equipment, proficient in various regulatory standards, and specializes in providing FCM food contact material testing services for various food contact materials (such as plastics, coatings, metals, silicone, glass ceramic enamel, bamboo, paper, and cardboard) in China, the United States, the European Union and its member states (France, Italy, Germany, etc.), Japan, South Korea and other countries to ensure that your products meet the regulatory requirements of various countries. Welcome to contact us at 400-9269-886!