Ecuador is consulting over its revised draft legislation on food contact ceramics. The proposed date of entry into force is Q1 of 2021.
On July 8, 2020, the World Trade Organization (WTO) announced a revised proposal from Ecuador to revise its technical regulation on food contact ceramics. The latest proposal, draft Ecuadorian Technical Regulation RTE UNEN 010 (2R) – ‘Ceramic Tableware Intended to Come into Contact with Food’, attached to WTO document number 20-4675 and notified under G/TBT/N/ECU/348/Rev.2, has a new structure and contains, inter alia, several important changes:
- Revision to existing definitions and addition of new definitions
- Addition of a table detailing the migration requirements for lead and cadmium (see Table 1 below)
- Mandating the list of information that must be included for labeling requirements.
- Requirements for conformity evaluation procedure (Procedimiento de Evaluación de la Conformidad (PEC)), including:'
- Inspection and sampling
- Requiring four identical units/samples for testing
- Product certificate of conformity (CoC)
- Supplier declaration of conformity (DoC)
- Test reports recognized by the Ecuadorian Accreditation Service (Servicio de Acreditación Ecuatoriano, SAE)
Once approved, the new Ecuadorian Technical Regulation RTE UNEN 010 (2R) will enter into force six months from the date of its publication in the Official Register and replaces RTE INEN 010:2013 (IR) and Amendments 1, 2 and 3:2014 on food contact ceramics. According to the WTO document, the proposed date of entry into force is Q1 of 2021.
Highlights of the migration requirements for lead and cadmium in draft Ecuadorian Technical Regulation RTE UNEN 010 (2R) are summarized in Table 1.
| WTO Document Number 20-4675, July 8, 2020 Draft Ecuadorian Technical Regulation RTE INEN 010 (2R) ‘Ceramic Tableware Intended to Come into Contact with Food’ | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type of Ceramicware | Standard | Criteria for 4 units | Requirement | |
| Lead | Cadmium | |||
| Flatware | Test Standard: ISO 6486-1 or NTE INEN ISO 6486-1 Standard: ISO 6486-2 | Average | ≤ 0.8 mg/dm² | ≤ 0.07 mg/dm² |
| Small Hollowware | All | ≤ 2 mg/l | ≤ 0.5 mg/l | |
| Large Hollowware | All | ≤ 1 mg/l | ≤ 0.25 mg/l | |
| Storage Hollowware | All | ≤ 0.5 mg/l | ≤ 0.25 mg/l | |
| Cups and Mugs | All | ≤ 0.5 mg/l | ≤ 0.25 mg/l | |
| Cooking Ware | All | ≤ 0.5 mg/l | ≤ 0.25 mg/l | |
Table 1
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