[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 21, Volume 3]
[Revised as of April 1, 2001]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 21CFR177.1600]

[Page 291]
 
                        TITLE 21--FOOD AND DRUGS
 
CHAPTER I--FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN 
                          SERVICES (CONTINUED)
 
PART 177--INDIRECT FOOD ADDITIVES: POLYMERS--Table of Contents
 
Subpart B--Substances for Use as Basic Components of Single and Repeated 
                        Use Food Contact Surfaces
 
Sec. 177.1600  Polyethylene resins, carboxyl modified.

    Carboxyl-modified polyethylene resins may be safely used as the 
food-contact surface of articles intended for use in contact with food 
in accordance with the following prescribed conditions:
    (a) For the purpose of this section, carboxyl-modified polyethylene 
resins consist of basic polymers produced when ethylene-methyl acrylate 
basic copolymers, containing no more than 25 weight percent of polymer 
units derived from methyl acrylate, are made to react in an aqueous 
medium with one or more of the following substances:

Ammonium hydroxide.
Calcium carbonate.
Potassium hydroxide.
Sodium hydroxide.

    (b) The finished food-contact article, when extracted with the 
solvent or solvents characterizing the type of food and under the 
conditions of time and temperature characterizing the conditions of its 
intended use as determined from tables 1 and 2 of Sec. 176.170(c) of 
this chapter, yields total extractives in each extracting solvent not to 
exceed 0.5 milligram per square inch of food-contact surface as 
determined by the methods described in Sec. 176.170(d) of this chapter; 
and if the finished food-contact article is itself the subject of a 
regulation in parts 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, and Sec. 179.45 of this 
chapter, it shall also comply with any specifications and limitations 
prescribed for it by that regulation. In testing the finished food-
contact articles, a separate test sample is to be used for each required 
extracting solvent.
    (c) The provisions of paragraph (b) of this section are not 
applicable to carboxyl-modified polyethylene resins used in food-
packaging adhesives complying with Sec. 175.105 of this chapter.