PPWR applies from 12 August 2026 — the packaging testing you need now
The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (EU) 2025/40 applies from 12 August 2026 — including a hard PFAS ban in food-contact packaging, with no transition period. Here is the laboratory evidence that proves your packaging is compliant.
What changes on 12 August 2026
Regulation (EU) 2025/40 (PPWR) entered into force on 11 February 2025 and applies across the EU from 12 August 2026, replacing Directive 94/62/EC. As a regulation it is directly binding in every Member State — no national transposition, the same rules everywhere. Some obligations phase in later (recyclability performance grades and recycled-content targets from 2030, harmonised recycling labelling from 12 August 2028), but the core requirements take effect in August 2026.
The PFAS ban is the part to act on now
The most urgent PPWR requirement is the ban on PFAS in food-contact packaging from 12 August 2026 — with no transitional period, so packaging placed on the market after that date must comply even if it was made earlier. The limits are 25 ppb for any single PFAS and 250 ppb for the sum of targeted PFAS. A supplier declaration is not enough: the Declaration of Conformity must be backed by laboratory test data, and a full PFAS panel typically takes two to six weeks — which is why portfolios need testing now.
The testing that proves compliance
Beyond PFAS, PPWR keeps the long-standing limit on heavy metals in packaging: the sum of lead, cadmium, mercury and hexavalent chromium must not exceed 100 mg/kg. That is a laboratory measurement by ICP-MS, required per packaging material.
- +PFAS in food-contact packaging — ≤25 ppb single / ≤250 ppb sum, from 12 August 2026
- +Heavy metals in packaging — sum of Pb + Cd + Hg + Cr(VI) ≤ 100 mg/kg, by ICP-MS
- +Recyclability assessment — design-for-recycling, the basis for the later performance grades
- +Recycled-content verification — for the plastic packaging targets from 2030
- +Food-contact migration (EU 10/2011) — where the packaging also contacts food
- +Compostability (EN 13432) — only for packaging placed on the market as compostable
What it costs
Heavy-metals screening on packaging is among the cheaper accredited tests — indicatively from €160 net per material by ICP-MS, scaling with the number of distinct materials and colours. Recyclability and recycled-content assessments are scoped per packaging design. Use the live calculator to build a figure for your own materials.
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