Boretech secures positive EFSA scientific opinion for PET recycling technology

CHINA – Boretech has received a positive Scientific Opinion from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) for its PET recycling process, brtCOMBIPET, marking a significant milestone under the European Union’s revised regulatory framework for food-grade plastics recycling.

The opinion was formally issued in November 2025 and completed in line with EU Regulation (EU) 2022/1616, one of the most stringent regulatory regimes globally for recycled plastics intended for food contact.

The approval places Boretech among a limited group of mechanical PET recycling technology providers worldwide to have successfully passed EFSA’s updated scientific assessment.

Since its implementation in September 2022, Regulation (EU) 2022/1616 has fundamentally reshaped the authorization process for recycled plastics, shifting regulatory scrutiny from individual recyclers to the technology developers themselves.

The regulation also significantly tightens requirements around cleaning efficiency, contaminant removal and traceability.

In response to these heightened standards, Boretech leveraged its advanced bottle-to-bottle recycling system and submitted extensive challenge test data to demonstrate compliance.

According to the company, the data confirmed that the brtCOMBIPET process meets EFSA’s criteria for a “high-efficiency decontamination process,” a key requirement for recycled plastics intended for direct food contact.

EFSA’s expert panel identified several critical process stages, namely extrusion, preheating and solid-state polycondensation (SSP), as central to achieving the required decontamination performance.

Test results showed that recycled PET produced using the brtCOMBIPET technology is safe for use at up to 100% recycled content in food contact applications.

This includes all types of food and beverages, including drinking water, and covers a wide range of storage and use conditions, from long-term room-temperature storage and refrigeration to hot-fill applications.

Under the current regulatory framework, EFSA’s positive Scientific Opinion represents a major step, but not the final stage, in the authorization process.

The next step lies with the European Commission, which will decide whether to grant formal authorization for the decontamination process and assign a Recycling Process Authorization Number (RAN).

Once issued, the RAN can be licensed by Boretech to PET recyclers seeking to produce food-grade recycled PET for the European market.

The development comes as brand owners and packaging converters face mounting regulatory and sustainability pressure to increase recycled content in food packaging, particularly for PET bottles.

Access to EFSA-approved recycling technologies is increasingly viewed as a critical enabler for meeting EU recycled content targets while maintaining food safety compliance.

Boretech said the EFSA opinion reinforces its role as a global solution provider across the plastics recycling value chain.

The company added that it remains focused on supporting circular economy goals through scalable, compliant recycling technologies and long-term partnerships with recyclers, converters and brand owners worldwide.

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