March, 2016

On 11 December 2015, the Italian Ministry of Health published Decree 195 of 6 August 2015^[1] in the Official Gazette of Italy, amending the Health Ministry Decree of 21 March 1973 (“DM 21 March 1973”) on the Hygiene rules for packaging, containers and utensils intended to come into contact with foodstuffs or personal-use products. The amendment entered into force on 26 December 2015. It only concerns the section on stainless steel.

Background

• The last amendment on the section concerning stainless steel of the DM 21 March 1973 was Decree 140 of 11 November 2013^[2] which entered into force on 31 December 2013.
• On 22 April 2015, Italy notified the European Commission (“EC”) through the Technical Regulations Information System (“TRIS”) on a draft Regulation amending DM 21 March 1973^[3]. 

Highlights

The Decree 195 of 6 August 2015 adopted all the proposed amendments from the TRIS notification. 

• This Decree added test conditions to Article 37 of the DM 21 March 1973 for the following products that will come into contact with heated food or food at room temperature, for a short period of time:
  • Cutting items that are to be used repeatedly in contact with food on tables and in the kitchen, and
  • Objects that are to be used in repeated contact with water.
• Table 1 shows a summary of the amended test conditions.

Table 1:

• This Decree removed the UNI EN 10088-1 numeric and alphanumeric designation  of  “1.4116 – X50CrMoV15” which corresponded  the AISI 440A - S44002 classification from Annex II, Section 6: “Stainless steels” – Part A.